- Zelensky says Russia launches ‘tank attack’ on Mariupol humanitarian corridor
- The UN Security Council will meet at Russia’s request
- Ukraine claims Russia bombed a nuclear plant in Kharkov
- Satellite imagery shows Russian convoy near Kyiv appears to have dispersed
This article was last updated at 02:45 UTC / GMT
Learn about Thursday’s events as German Olaf Solz called for a ceasefire in a call with Putin
Satellite photos show the dispersal of the convoy to Kyiv
Satellite images show a huge Russian motorcade, sunk outside the Ukrainian capital since last week, dismantled and redeveloped.
Photographs by Maxar Technologies showed that the 40-mile (64-kilometer) range of vehicles, including tanks and artillery, had been dispersed.
Armored units have appeared in towns near Antonov Airport north of the city and some have been moved to forests, Maxar said.
The escort to Kyiv seemed to have stopped last week amid reports of food and fuel shortages.
According to US officials, Ukrainian troops also targeted the line with anti-tank missiles.
Escort elements appear to have deployed north of the airport near the town of Lubyanka, with trailer artillery shells at firing points.
Summary of events in the Ukraine-Russia crisis on Thursday
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said almost half of the capital’s residents had fled and the city had been turned into a fortress on Thursday.
Russian troops have occupied the outskirts of the north and northwest of the city. But former boxing champion Klitschko said the city was determined not to fall.
“Every road, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified,” he said in a televised address. “Even people who in their lives never intended to change clothes, now are in uniform with machine guns in their hands.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of targeting a humanitarian corridor in the city of Mariupol in an “absolute terror” operation.
Zelensky said that while some 100,000 people have been evacuated from the country’s cities in just two days, some city dwellers have no way out.
The president said he had decided to send a convoy of trucks with food, water and medicine, but that “the occupiers launched a tank attack right where this corridor was supposed to be.”
Following an international condemnation of a Russian attack on a hospital in Mariupol, the Russian Defense Ministry later denied that it had hit the building.
More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine so far, according to the latest UN report, about half of them children.
In a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Olaf Soltz and French President Emanuel Macron called for an end to military action in Ukraine.
However, Ukraine and Russia have made “no progress” on a 24-hour ceasefire agreement following talks in Turkey. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“There seems to be other decision-makers on this issue in Russia,” Kuleba said, in a subtle covert reference to Putin.
Putin said on Thursday that his countrymen would find a way to “adapt” to the massive international sanctions and withdrawals of Western companies in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
rc / wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
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