Russian forces may be positioning themselves for new attacks within days against Kyiv, British defence chiefs warned on Friday.
The latest intelligence briefing from the Ministry of Defence said: “Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days. This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv.”
Separate reports said a 40-mile column of tanks and other military vehicles outside Kyiv had dispersed into local towns and artillery units were being moved into firing positions.
The convoy has advanced about three miles closer to the Ukrainian capital, a US defence official said on Friday, with some elements as close as nine miles from the city.
Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed that 40-mile convoy of vehicles, tanks and artillery has broken up and been redeployed, the company said on Friday. Armoured units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city. Some of the vehicles have moved into forests, Maxar reported, with towed howitzers nearby in position to open fire.
The photos emerged the US and other nations were poised Friday to announce the revocation of Russia’s “most favoured nation” trade status, which would allow tariffs to be imposed on Russian imports.
Unbowed by the sanctions, Russia kept up its bombardment of Mariupol while Kyiv braced for an onslaught, its mayor boasting that the capital had become practically a fortress protected by armed civilians.
Russia appeared to be widening its attack across Ukraine on Friday with local authorities reporting strikes near airports in the western Ukrainian cities of Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk.
The mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, ordered residents in the neighboring areas to head to shelters after an air raid alert. The mayor of Lutsk also announced an airstrike near the airport.
The strikes were far to the west from the main Russian offensive and could indicate a new direction of the war.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered a 16th day, there were reports of shelling in the central city of Dnipro for the first time, with emergency services saying three air strikes had killed at least one person. One of the strikes was reported to have landed near a kindergarten.
It came after Ukraine’s state regulator for atomic sites accused Russia of an “act of nuclear terrorism” after a fire broke out at a lab containing a reactor and radioactive materials.
Footage circulated on social media showed the blaze at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, which Ukraine’s government said was shelled by Russian forces. The regulator said the situation was now under control.
Outside Kyiv, the huge convoy of Russian military that massed outside the city early last week appeared to have stall amid reports of food and fuel shortages, and a bombardment of anti-tank missiles from Ukraine.
But a US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said the Russian forces had advanced about about three miles in the past 24 hours, with some elements within ten miles from the city.
The official gave no indication that the convoy had dispersed or otherwise repositioned in a significant way, saying some vehicles were seen moving off the road into the tree line in recent days.
In Mariupol, a southern seaport of 430,000, the situation was increasingly dire as civilians trapped inside the city scramble for food and fuel. More than 1,300 people have died in the 10-day siege of the city, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Residents have no heat or phone service, and many have no electricity. Nighttime temperatures are regularly below freezing, and daytime ones normally hover just above it. Bodies are being buried in mass graves. The streets are littered with burned-out cars, broken glass and splintered trees.
“They have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to mock it, to constantly bomb and shell it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation.
