Status: 03/01/2022 04:33 a.m
During the night, there were increasing indications of a major offensive on important Ukrainian cities. Military vehicles are now parked on a stretch of more than 60 kilometers in front of the capital.
Satellite images taken on Monday show a 60-kilometer Russian military convoy northwest of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The convoy “stretched from the area around Antonov Airport (about 25 kilometers from central Kiev) in the south to the area around Prybirsk in the north,” the US satellite imagery company Maxar said. Images of the convoy show dozens of vehicles lined up on roads in the Ukrainian countryside.
Some of the vehicles are “very far apart,” Maxar said. Others are grouped “in twos and threes”. Some of the images show smoke from buildings that are believed to be on fire. The US company also released images showing new troop deployments from attack helicopters and vehicles in Belarus, less than 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
General staff warns of offensive
Since the start of the Russian offensive on Thursday, the Ukrainian armed forces have said they have repelled several attacks by Russian forces on Kyiv. There was major fighting around Antonov Airport on the outskirts of the capital. According to Western military officials, Ukrainian resistance has “slowed down” Russia’s war of aggression. However, Russia was massing more and more troops around the country’s larger cities and, according to Ukrainian sources, fired at them with rockets.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
On Monday, the main Russian column had advanced “about five kilometers” towards Kyiv and was “about 25 kilometers” from the city, according to a senior US Defense Department official.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army said on Facebook on Tuesday that Russian forces had regrouped over the past 24 hours, accumulating armored vehicles and artillery “mainly to encircle and take control of Kyiv and the other major cities of Ukraine “.
Mariupol under Ukrainian control
The Ukrainian authorities also reported a large explosion in the second largest city of Kharkiv, which killed at least eleven people. Russian tanks and armored vehicles can be seen “everywhere” in the city, Mayor Igor Terekhov said, quoted by Ukrainian media. The Russian military also blew up substations, according to the Ukrinform agency. This is said to cause problems with the electricity and water supply. The Unian news agency reported that the upper floors of two skyscrapers had been destroyed. The information could not be independently verified.
Loud explosions could also be heard in the capital Kyiv on Monday evening, as reported by journalists in the city. In Kyiv, many people prepared for another Russian attack and erected makeshift barricades in the streets. The Russian army asked the population to leave Kyiv on a specific expressway.
The southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol is still under the control of the Ukrainian army, according to state information early Tuesday morning. However, due to an air strike, the city in the Donetsk region is almost without electricity, the State Information Service of Ukraine reported, citing the city’s mayor. There are also internet and cell phone outages. On Monday, the city was still considered contested.