Russian troops re-posturing themselves for renewed attacks in coming days: UK Def Ministry

Russian troops are re-posturing themselves for renewed attacks, British Defense Ministry warned on Friday, as the conflict continued for the 16th day. Sharing its intelligence update on Twitter, the ministry said that there was a possibility of a “renewed offensive activity” in the coming days. It is worth noting that satellite images shared earlier this week, showed that the 40-mile long convoy of Russian soldiers heading towards Kyiv had been redeployed.

“Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed off offensive activity in the coming days. This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv,” the UK Ministry of defence said in a statement.

In addendum, it also stated that it remained “highly unlikely” that Russia had successfully achieved the objectives outlined in its “pre-invasion plan.” However, the ground forces were making limited progress in their invasion. “Logistical issues that have hampered the Russian advance persist, as does string Ukrainian resistance,” the ministry noted.  

Russia may deploy Chemical weapons: Johnson

This comes as UK PM Boris Johnson, on Thursday, said that he fears Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “barbaric” regime may resort to deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine. Speaking to Sky News a day after Moscow accused Kyiv of hiding biological weapons, Johnson said that the Kremlin could use the ‘fake story’ to deploy banned weapons. He said that the only way to end the ongoing war was if Putin realizes that he made a “catastrophic mistake”.

The battle to guard Kyiv’s sovereignty has now entered the third week with both sides pulling every stop to win. Over 2 million people have left the country while over 549 Ukrainian citizens have lost their lives, according to official UN estimates released on Thursday. However, it said that the death toll is believed to be very high than this. Meanwhile, American officials estimated that nearly 6,000 Russian troops may have died in the battle. While Zelenskyy is continuing to galvanize support from the west, recent satellite images showed that the 40-mile long Russian convoy, which was heading towards Kyiv, had been redeployed. However, experts opine that it would take not more than a week or two for Moscow to take over Kyiv if they continued their invasion.

Image: AP