Kyiv, Ukraine – With a convoy of Russian tanks, armored vehicles, other weapons and troops stretching nearly 40 miles near the capital on Tuesday, Ukrainians were preparing for an all-out Russian assault on their capital.
Long queues of cars swarmed outside gas stations. Residents scour the city in search of groceries and bakeries to stock up on food for what could take days or even weeks trapped inside homes in the event of an all-out urban war – just like what is happening in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city.
Ukrainian forces, from the regular army and a force of civilian volunteers called the Regional Defense Unit, patrolled the streets and took up positions on strategic bridges, roads and highways. Many of the highways and main roads used to enter the city, especially from the north, were fortified with heavy weapons, anti-tank missiles, artillery, and heavy machine guns. The fighters were building trenches and putting up tire barriers.
On Monday evening, Ukrainian armored personnel carriers moved across a fortified patch of highway as a convoy of trucks was moving from the city center towards the northern region, their beds carrying several armored vehicles.
The Russian convoy, according to satellite images from Mazar Technologies released on Monday, was about 17 miles north of central Kyiv, and appeared to be heading toward the Antonov military airfield in the town of Hostomel, which is now controlled by Russian forces.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that regional defense units in the Obolon region, north of the capital, had arrested 30 Russian “saboteurs” or infiltrators, whom the Ukrainian government says were deployed to sow chaos and chaos in the city. The report could not be independently verified.
On Monday evening, the bombing appeared to be less than the previous days, although the sirens went off several times on Monday and at least once on Tuesday morning. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the capital was hit by three missile strikes on Monday.