Russian Convoy Advancing On Kyiv Stretches 40 Miles

Russian convoy advancing on Kyiv now stretches for 40 MILES, satellite images show: Armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles have reached outskirts of the Ukrainian capital

HARRIET ALEXANDER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

• A convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles 40 miles long is currently advancing on Kyiv
• The convoy left southern Belarus earlier on Monday and was initially believed to be 17 miles long, but the estimate has been revised
• Satellite imagery from U.S. firm Maxar showed the scale of the deployment, with military vehicles stretching towards the Belarus border
• The White House on Monday night said it was monitoring the convoy, concerned not only by its increased size but by the increase in violence and indiscriminate killing in recent days 
• Heavy shelling of Kyiv and Kharkiv, the second city, was taking place on Monday and into Tuesday amid fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces
• Russia on Monday deployed a horrific thermobaric bomb banned under the Geneva Convention, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. said on Monday
• Oksana Markarova, speaking after briefing Congressmen, claimed the Kremlin had used the devastating bomb during air strikes
• Michelle Bachelet, UN human rights chief, said Monday her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including seven children, have been killed since Thursday

A Russian military convoy traveling towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has grown from being 17 miles long earlier on Monday to 40 miles, a satellite company has said.

Maxar Technologies, a private U.S. satellite company, also said additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 20 miles north of the Ukraine border.

Maxar said the convoy stretches from the Antonov airbase, 17 miles north of Kyiv's city center, to just north of the Ukrainian town of Pribyrsk. 

Pribyrsk is closer to the Ukraine-Belarus border and the failed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl than to Kyiv.

On Sunday, Maxar had measured the convoy — then near Ivankiv, Ukraine — at roughly 3.5 miles long. 

White House sources told CNN they were carefully monitoring the convoy, and were concerned not only at its increased size but also at the uptick in violence and indiscriminate killings. 

U.S. intelligence officials told members of Congress on Monday that they expect a second overwhelming wave of attacks to engulf Kyiv. Two people told CNN that the briefing detailed how they expect the sheer numbers of Russian troops to flatten the Ukrainian resistance.

Another source told the channel that Russia was likely to lay siege to Kyiv, and predicted ugly scenes of urban warfare. 

The line of vehicles is so extensive that it was not entirely captured in Monday's satellite imagery. 

In some areas, the vehicles are two to three rows deep.

It was not clear whether all vehicles in the convoy were headed for the same final destination, or whether the military forces would split up and encircle the capital.

U.S. intelligence believes around 75 percent of Russian forces positioned on the borders with Ukraine are now inside the country. 

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