Russian troops in Ukraine Border Satellite Photos

KYIV – Tanks and other dangerous self-made weapons. A Russian Buk top-to-air missile system similar to the one that launched Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Thousands more troops.

That’s just it one no Russian troops and things the video footage of a television broadcast heading to the Ukrainian border just last week. Western and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies estimate that 100,000 troops, along with warplanes and missile launchers, are already in place. That number could rise to 175,000 troops, agencies say.

This deployment, coupled with the word-of-mouth threat and war games taking place far away in Ukraine, is not working well in Eastern Europe. These are alarming signs that Russia is preparing to launch another major offensive, a step forward to seize the former Soviet Union, which has moved more and more from the Moscow movement – and into Western democracies – since gaining independence 30 years ago.

The invasion, experts warn, could erupt in Europe’s largest and most bloody war since World War II. about an 8-year war in Ukraine that has already killed more than 14,000 people. Russian leader he said wants NATO to scrap its 2008 promise to Ukraine of future membership.

Recent satellite images submitted to BuzzFeed News by Maxar Technologies and illuminated by military experts show what appears to be some of these new battleships in the most strategic locations in Soloti, southwestern Russia, about 30 miles from the Ukrainian border, and in Opuk, south for the Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow forcibly took over from Kyiv in 2014.

This week, the Russian military did fire-fighting exercise with 1,500 troops in the area and more nearby. Russian Federal Security Service, FSB, passed a Ukrainian ship in Lake Azov which he described as “agitated.” And President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin, and the state-run media have all said the same thing.

White House security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters this week that Putin had not decided whether to start another major war in Ukraine. But US intelligence and military experts warn that they have more Russian troops if they choose to do so.

“There is no indication that Russia is moving troops from Ukraine, but there is evidence that Russia continues to send more troops near the border,” said Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist and PhD specialist at King’s College London War. The Department of Education, told BuzzFeed News. “I hope this means that Russia will continue to have weapons in the vicinity of Ukraine in the future which is expected …

Konrad Muzyka, a security expert monitoring Russia and Belarus, analyzed Maxar Technologies’ images of BuzzFeed News. He said Russia had formed a new unit within the 3rd Motor Rifle Division and that the force must have accounted for the number of troops and equipment in Soloti that appeared on satellite images between September 7 and Dec. 5. This was two days before. Biden and Putin’s singing.

“The regiment was established by BMP-3Ms [Russian infantry fighting vehicles] who were evacuated from the 22nd Central Reserve and Maintenance Tank Base in Buy in mid-November, “he said, referring to the city northwest of Moscow where he hailed from. during November and early December, some 200 new vehicles appeared in Soloti, though not all of them came from Buy. ”

Maxar chief executive Stephen Wood told BuzzFeed News that some of the recent additions to the vehicles seen on December 5 photo could represent the troops who returned after taking part in a major underground operation that took place in Russia’s collapse.

In Opuk, Muzyka said, it is difficult to know what is being shown on satellite images taken on Nov. 27. “In the last few months, there has been a movement in and out of Crimea. This has been done to disrupt the growth of Russian military forces there.”

Wood said it was “one of the areas where the Russian military had the most weapons and weapons in April.” Most of the equipment and troops withdrew from the training ground early in the summer, according to Wood, but “these weapons that appeared in the November 26 photo represent new weapons in the area by the end of November.”

Muzyka saw one of the most disturbing aspects of the photographs: markers when several tents were equipped with weapons. Their being in a position meant that there was no need for them to be sent beyond that base.

“For me, the removal of stockpiles to create a new chapter is a sign that Russia is preparing for a conflict,” he said.

Insisting to prevent a new offensive, Biden told Putin at a second meeting on Tuesday that he would face serious consequences if he continued to invade Ukraine.

“I told President Putin … that if he went to Ukraine, the economic crisis would be devastating,” Biden said on Friday.

The Biden government is considering a number of measures to prevent Russian atrocities and a new offensive in Ukraine. It said it could send military aid to Kyiv, including anti-aircraft missiles for Javelin tanks, and is proposing a plan to send air defense equipment. And Biden himself has said he is ready to impose new sanctions against Russia – no matter how difficult it may seem.

“What the President has clearly stated to President Putin, what I have told Foreign Minister Lavrov, my friend, is that we are watching and we are ready to take the steps we have avoided. In the past it could have far-reaching consequences for Russia,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday.

Speaking at a meeting with top diplomats from the Group of 7 countries, Blinken said his colleagues “are also determined to fight Russian violence, to ban it, to ban it.”

Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday. The two discussed ways to try to resolve diplomatic tensions with Russia over the Minsk accords.

The Ukrainian leader also urged Biden to take action with sanctions and security measures, saying placing them and sending aid would now prevent a revolt, Zelensky’s music consultant told BuzzFeed News.

Pointing out that things could get worse before the crisis, as Biden and Zelensky put it, Putin told Russian reporters that what Ukrainian troops were doing in eastern Ukraine was “Russian” and “similar to genocide.” In a question-and-answer session on Sunday evening on a Russian radio program, Putin lamented the demise of the USSR, according to Reuters, claiming that it led to the end of “Russian history”.