Russian convoy advanced 40 miles on Kyiv

KATHMANDU: MARCH. 1 – A Russian military convoy travelling towards Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has grown from 17 miles long to 40 miles on Monday, a satellite company said.

Maxar Technologies, a private US satellite company, also said that additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 20 miles north of the Ukrainian border.

Maxar said the convoy stretched from Antonov Airbase, 17 miles north of Kyiv’s city center, north of the Ukrainian city of Pribirsk.

Pribirsk is closer to the Ukraine-Belarus border and has a failed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl than Kyiv.

On Sunday, Maxar had measured the convoy – then near Ivankiv, Ukraine – about 3.5 miles long.

White House sources told CNN They were closely monitoring the convoy and were concerned not only at its increased size but also at the increase in violence and indiscriminate killings.

US intelligence officials told members of Congress on Monday they were expecting another massive wave of attacks in Kyiv. The two men told CNN that the briefing detailed how they expect a massive influx of Russian troops to quell Ukrainian resistance.

Another source told the channel that Russia was likely to lay siege to Kyiv, and had predicted ugly scenes of urban warfare.

A huge Russian military convoy is seen moving from Belarus to Kyiv

The queue of vehicles is so extensive that it was not captured in full on Monday’s satellite imagery.

In some areas, the vehicles are two to three rows deep.

It was unclear whether the convoy was headed for the same final destination, or whether the forces would split and surround the capital.

US intelligence believes that about 75 percent of Russian forces stationed on the border with Ukraine are now inside the country.

Vitaly Klitschko, former world heavyweight boxing champion who is now mayor of Kyiv, said his city was scared but determined.

“We were never so patriotic,” he told CNN’s, Anderson Cooper.

‘I have never been so proud of my soldiers. Our soldiers are heroes. Building civil defence. People are taking up arms and ready to defend our homes, our families, our future and our country.

‘I’m really proud. The military is not interested in how strong the Russian army is; We are ready to fight and ready to die for our home. Because this is our future. Somebody wants to steal our future by coming to our house.

Asked how long Kyiv could last, he replied: ‘As long as we can live.’

And, in a message to Putin, he said: ‘We do not want the Soviet Union back. We want a free, democratic country. We are fighting for that – fighting for our dreams.

‘We don’t need war. We are a peaceful nation, a peaceful people.

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, said Monday night that a confidential briefing to Congress confirmed Putin was moving at a slower pace than expected.

‘Just leaving the classified briefing on the Ukraine crisis. A few takeaways that I can share,’ he tweeted.

‘1/ Confirmation that the Russians are behind their deadline. Ukrainian resistance has been fierce and there have been several Russian equipments and logistics failures.

‘2/DOD and DHS are working hard to get Congress to end the ongoing resolution and pass the budget. There is no way for our national security agencies to be nimble enough to support Ukraine if they are working on the 2020/21 budget.

‘3/ The ability to keep supply lines running to Ukraine is alive, but Russia will seek to encircle and cut off Kyiv over the next several weeks. The battle for Kyiv will be long and bloody and the Ukrainians are rapidly preparing for a street-to-street fight.

‘4/ The US and allies are coordinating not only to freeze the assets of Putin and his elite allies but to confiscate those assets as well. This is potentially a step further than Putin’s inner circle.

The Russian-held site closest to Kyiv’s center, Antonov Airport, was the scene of fierce fighting on Friday as it changed hands several times.

As of Saturday, it was under the control of Putin’s army.

On Friday night and early Saturday morning, there was a fierce attack on Kyiv as Russian forces attempted to enter the city from all sides.

From the north, the army was attacking from Antonov Airport, in which a thermal power plant in the suburb of Troyshchina was the center of the battle.

From the east, Putin’s forces advanced towards the Kyiv Zoo, fighting fiercely along Peremohi Avenue – a main artery in the city.

And from the south, 20 miles to the south of Kyiv, the fighting was going on near the city of Vasilkov.

On Monday, delegations representing Ukraine and Russia met in Belarus to discuss the future.

As soon as the discussion began, the Russian army opened fire on Kyiv.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday night that his country has so far been hit with 56 Russian missile strikes in the five-day conflict, and 113 cruise missiles fired.

He accused Russia of war crimes when Vladimir Putin’s forces launched cluster and vacuum bomb attacks on the fifth day of their invasion.

In a late-night address directed at Russia, Zelensky said that ‘there will certainly be an international tribunal’ which he said was ‘violating all conventions’ and added that ‘any peaceful person in the world would be responsible for the murder of the Ukrainian people’. Won’t forgive,

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he plans to launch an investigation “as soon as possible” into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Air raid sirens again sounded in the capital city early Tuesday.

Ukrainian media reported that the city of Kherson, 300 miles south of Kyiv on the Black Sea, was also coming under attack early Tuesday, Nexta reported.

A burnt-out car is seen on Monday in Donetsk, in the east of Ukraine

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest eastern city, came under heavy attack on Monday, killing nine civilians. the new York Times Reported.

In a video posted on Facebook, Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said: “Today it is shown that this is not just a war, it is killing us, the Ukrainian people.”

‘This is the first time in its many-year history that the city of Kharkiv has been like this: shells hitting residential houses, killing and crippling innocent civilians.’

Terekhov said four people died on Monday as they left bomb shelters to find water.

A family of five – two adults and three children – was burned alive when a bullet hit their car.

He said another 37 people were injured.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the US claimed earlier on Monday that Russia used a destructive vacuum bomb on Ukraine.

Speaking after the briefing to members of the US Congress, Oksana Markova said: ‘They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually banned by the Geneva Convention. The devastation that Russia is trying to wreak on Ukraine is huge.

Vacuum bombs, also known as thermobaric weapons, can vaporize the body and crush internal organs. They use oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically generating a blast wave of much longer duration than conventional explosives.

They are among the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever developed.

The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said on Monday that her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including seven children, have been killed, and 304 others injured, in violence in Ukraine since Thursday, as she cautioned that the tally’s The prospect was a huge undercount.

It comes amid reports that Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is set to throw his own troops into the fight.

The move was made after Chechen forces were thrown into battle, which almost immediately destroyed a column of armored vehicles and killed one of their top generals.

Belarus on Sunday voted to amend the country’s constitution, allowing them to host Russian nuclear weapons, in response to Putin’s ‘threats’ from the West to its defense chiefs that the country’s nuclear weapons were ‘alert’. ‘ came after the order to keep.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that Russia’s decision to increase the nuclear alert was “a reckless, dangerous decision”.

He continued: ‘There is no reason for this. NATO is not a threat to Russia. We do not want a confrontation with Russia.