Belarusian troops now on Ukrainian soil – missiles right in the center of Kharkiv

Kharkiv city center has been hit with rockets in what President Zelenskyy calls an “act of terrorism”. Belarusian troops are also taking part in the fighting in northern Ukraine. A huge Russian military convoy is rolling towards Kyiv. The events of the war at a glance.

Russia continues the invasion war in Ukraine after the first negotiation talks with undiminished severity. “The grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will continue to conduct a special military operation until the set goals are achieved,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in Moscow on Tuesday, according to the Interfax agency. These are a “demilitarization” and an alleged “denazification” of Ukraine – from the point of view of the Russian government a very flexible term. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also spoke of an alleged threat from Ukraine’s nuclear ambitions.

Satellite images taken on Monday show a 60-kilometer Russian military convoy northwest of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The convoy “stretches from the area around Antonov Airport (about 25 kilometers from central Kiev) in the south to the area around Prybirsk” in the north, US satellite imaging company Maxar said in an email Monday evening. Images of the convoy show dozens of vehicles lined up on roads in the Ukrainian countryside.

According to estimates by American defense circles, the Russian military still wants to take the capital Kyiv, despite strong Ukrainian resistance. A senior Pentagon official told US broadcaster CNBC that there was “all the evidence”. “We assume that they will continue to move and try to surround the city in the coming days.”

Some of the vehicles are “very far apart,” Maxar said. Others are grouped “in twos and threes”. Some of the images show smoke from buildings that are believed to be on fire. The US company also released images showing new troop deployments from attack helicopters and vehicles in Belarus, less than 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. In Kyiv itself, it remained comparatively quiet during the night, even if the alarm sounded several times – a feared large-scale attack did not materialize at first.

At the same time, the Russian army continued shelling the second largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv. “Bild” reported heavy rockets fired at the city center, the regional government building and a theater were also shelled. “This morning the central square of our city and the seat of the Kharkiv administration was attacked,” said the governor of the region Oleg Sinegubov in a video on Telegram. He released footage of the blast, adding: “The Russian occupiers continue to use heavy weapons against the civilian population.”

At least 10 people were killed and 35 injured in Kharkiv, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. “The rubble is being cleared up and there will be more casualties and injuries,” the consultant said in a social media post.