Russia has been warned there could be just 48 hours to invade Ukraine - as Ukrainian soldiers were filmed training with British NLAW anti-tank weapons for the first time.
The drills in Lviv region come as Russia continues to tighten its military noose around Ukraine while officially denying any intention to invade.
But one close Vladimir Putin ally claimed it would take a maximum 48 hours to invade Ukraine because Kyiv is so outnumbered.
“Representatives of the British training mission in Ukraine introduced our military to the performance characteristics and features of the use of light anti-tank weapons provided by international partners," said Kyiv’s armed forces.
The NLAW hand-held guided missile launcher is seen as having an excellent guidance system that provides a high probability of destroying a moving target with the first shot.
Ukraine also has US Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and its own anti-tank systems and armed drones.
New videos show heavy Russian military equipment continuing to arrive in Belarus - to the north of Ukraine, and annexed Crimea, to the south.
Major military hardware is also seen in new social media footage recorded in Rostov and Voronezh regions to the east of Ukraine.
Another video highlights 12 Russian Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile systems to Belarus ostensibly for joint military exercises.
Ukraine now estimates Russia’s manpower is up to 130,000, with the US claiming it has sufficient firepower to attempt a partial or complete invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said: ”Now we are observing units that include some 112,000 people, and it's about 130,000 with the naval and aviation components.
“In April 2021, the combat component that Russia was transferring comprised 126,000 people. So, the numbers are proportionate. The reaction is not proportionate.”
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday: “While we don't believe that President Putin has made a final decision to use these forces against Ukraine, he clearly now has the capability.”
He warned of provocations such as a “false flag operation” to trigger Russian intervention.
A close Putin ally Konstantin Malofeev - who runs an investment group and a staunchly pro-Kremlin media - told Znak media that it would take two days to control Ukraine.
“Open military conflict between Russia and Ukraine cannot be a war, or, at least, a long-term war, because the difference in military potential is so big that there can be only an operation for forcing the peace,” he said.
“It will take 48 hours maximum, and we cannot talk about different fronts.”
He claimed that Ukraine was currently under the sway of US and British - “Anglo-Saxon” - secret services .
“The invasion has already happened,” he said.
“American and British special services already are Ukrainian territory.
“We know that Canadian special forces have arrived in Ukraine.
“Therefore we can expect provocations on the border with DPR (pro-Moscow rebel-held Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR (Luhansk Peoples’ Republic).
“Perhaps, these won't be Ukrainians but Anglo-Saxon special forces, who organise these provocations, because Americans and British are ready to take on the Russians, until the last Ukrainian falls.”
He claimed: “We consider Ukraine as a country temporarily occupied by the Anglo-Saxon special services, in which there is no sovereign power, which is completely under the control of these special services.
“So, we are not talking with the Ukrainian authorities, but with the collective West.
“For this reason, negotiations are not taking place in Kyiv, but in Geneva, in Brussels, where it is necessary to talk with the owners of the current Kyiv regime….
“Yes, they don't even want to contact them.
“Let's see if their masters will be ready to make peace without shedding the blood of Ukrainians and Russians, or they will drag the Ukrainians into this crazy and suicidal conflict.”
Malofeef has denied Western claims of previous destabilisation of eastern Ukraine.
In the Baltic, Russian staged launch drills against “aggressor ships” with Bastion mobile coastal missile systems.
