LIVE | A huge 64-kilometre Russian military convoy is approaching Kiev, according to satellite images

Satellite images taken late this Monday show a huge Russian military convoy north of the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, stretching some 40 miles (64 kilometers), substantially more than the 17 miles (27 kilometers) previously reported in Sunday’s report, a private US company said. This column contains hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and logistics support vehicles.

West and northwest of Kyivsatellite images show destroyed armored vehicles and a damaged bridge near Irpin and Stoyanka.

Maxar Technologies (MAXR.N) maintained that additional deployments of ground forces and attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarusless than 20 miles (32 km) north of the border with Ukraine.

Most of the forces of Russia this monday they were about 30 kilometers north of Kievstopped by the Ukrainian resistance, according to the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom.

On Monday night, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskysaid that Russian troops have intensified artillery fire on Ukrainecalling it an attempt to force his government to make concessions during talks on Monday.

In a video speech, Zelensky said “The negotiations took place against a backdrop of bombing and artillery fire against our territory, our cities. The resonance of the artillery strikes with the negotiation process was obvious. I think that Russia is trying to pressure (Ukraine) with this simple method.”

The president did not provide any details about the negotiations, which lasted for hours. But he commented that Ukraine is unwilling to make concessions “when one side is hitting the other with rocket artillery.”

Zelensky argued that Kiev remains a “key target” of Russia and that Russian soldiers have also attacked the city of Kharkiv with rocket artillery.

On the other hand, the Russian army assured that the residents of the capital of Ukraine they can use an established corridor to get out of town if they wish.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Mayor General Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Kiev residents can safely use a highway leading to Vasylkiv, a short distance southwest of the Ukrainian capital. The statement came amid fighting in various parts of the Ukrainian capital, as Ukrainian authorities said they were fighting small groups of Russian troops in various sectors of the capital.

Konashenkov charged that Ukrainian “nationalists” in military gear were using the city’s residents as shields, claims that could not be independently verified. Despite claims by the Russian armed forces that they did not attack populated areas during residential buildings, hospitals and schools have been affected throughout Ukraine by the Russian invasion that began on Thursday.

Konashenkov also announced that Russian troops have taken control of an area around the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in the south of the country. He assured that the plant is safe and radiation levels in the area remain normal.

attack at close range

Russia is attacking Ukraine on several fronts, but their progress has been slowed by Ukrainian resistance. he monday, Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were injured in a missile attack on residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city about 35 kilometers from the border with Russia, Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said.

“Kharkiv. A merciless and senseless attack on a residential neighborhood with missiles! Corpses mangled in the streets! Gueraschenko wrote on his Telegram channel, in which he posted several videos with heartbreaking images.

In one of them the bodies of passers-by are seen and in another a woman whose leg was ripped off by the explosion of one of the missiles.

In another of the videos, lasting 30 seconds, it is seen how about fifteen missiles hit a sector of the city, located in the northeast of Ukraine.

The attack occurred at a time when at the other end of the country, on the Ukrainian-Belarussian border, delegations from Ukraine and Russia sat down to negotiate for the first time since the Russian president, on the 24th, Vladimir Putinwill launch a “special military operation” against this country.

Source: Reuters / AP / EFE

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