Satellite photos show the 40-mile Russian convoy of vehicles, tanks, and artillery outside of Kyiv has split up and been redeployed, The Associated Press reports.
The images were taken late Thursday morning by Maxar Technologies, and show armored units near the Antonov Airport and several vehicles in forests north of Kyiv. The convoy had been stalled for several days, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speculating the delay was caused by "logistics and sustainment challenges" and "resistance from the Ukrainians," while others blamed cheap Chinese tires. But the Pentagon said Thursday that the column has moved recently, with the lead vehicles now about 9 miles from Kyiv's center, from 12 miles in previous days.
In the last few days, Russian forces have been making little progress on the ground, Western officials said, but they are still able to bomb places like Mariupol from the air. Mariupol, a southern port city, is under siege, and in the last 10 days, at least 1,300 people have died there, Ukrainian officials said. Residents are without water and power, and local Red Cross official Sacha Volkov told AP that there isn't any food left in grocery stores or pharmacies, because hungry people broke in several days ago to take what was on the shelves. Volkov also said people are stealing gasoline from cars and getting vegetables from a black market.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Russian forces of attacking civilians in an area of Mariupol that was supposed to have a humanitarian corridor. "They have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to mock it, to constantly bomb and shell it," Zelensky said in his nightly address. Russian leaders, he added, will "definitely be prosecuted for complicity in war crimes."