Massive 65-km long Russian military convoy nears Ukraine's capital Kyiv; know all about it

As Moscow asserts that military operations in Ukraine will continue until 'objectives' are met, satellite imagery has captured a  65km (40 miles) long Russian convoy, north of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

According to the United States satellite imaging company Maxar Technologies, the Russian convoy, armed with military equipment and units is making its way into the interiors, indicating that Russia may unleash devastating assaults to take control of Kyiv.

(Military convoy northwest of Invankiv; Image: Maxar Technologies via AP)

Details about the Russian Convoy

The vast convoy includes armoured vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles and ranges from Antonov airport outside Kyiv to the town of Prybirsk, according to Maxar. “Some vehicles are spaced fairly far apart while in other sections military equipment and units are travelling two or three vehicles abreast on the road,” Maxar said. 

The images also showed a part of a military convoy and burning homes northwest of Invankiv, Ukraine on Monday.

(Smoke arises as part of military convoy moves through burning homes northwest of Invankiv; Image: Maxar Technologies via AP)

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby has estimated that Russian forces are trying to move closer to Ukraine's capital of Kyiv but they are still on the 'fringes' of the city centre. The latest images have now confirmed that the Russian military convoy is 25 kilometres (17 miles) from the centre of Kyiv. 

Apart from movement in Kyiv, the images also showed deployments of ground forces and ground attack helicopter units in southern Belarus, which has been used by Russia to launch the multi-pronged offensive. The additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 32 km (20 miles) north of the Ukraine's border.

(Ground attack helicopters on V.D. Bokov airfield near Mazyr, Belarus; Image: Maxar Technologies via AP)

Russia-Ukraine war

For weeks, Moscow massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in a bid to pressurise Western nations to not allow Ukraine to join NATO. Ultimately, on February 24, Kremlin, on the pretext of 'special military operation' and with an aim to 'demilitarise', ordered its armed forces to carry out a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. Citing his reason as Kyiv's failure to establish 'talks' with Moscow, Putin directed the Russian Army to launch heavy missile strikes and explosions across the country. Ukraine has refused to surrender and continues to hold up resistance.

Meanwhile, delegations of both countries met for peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border on Monday, February 28. At the discussions, that lasted for over five hours, both sides found some common points on which common positions can be found, Sputnik reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's advisor Mykhailo Podoliak said that a second meeting would be held in the near future. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has said that no meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is likely.