Russian 5km-long column advances on Kyiv. Zelensky doesn’t expect much from talks with Russia

Satellite images showed a 5-km long column moving towards Kyiv on Monday, Feb. 28 with thousands of infantry troops, tanks, self-propelled artillery, and fuel and logistical trucks, still 50km northwest of its target. In the city, weapons were being handed out to people to defend the city.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has little hope that the peace talks with Russia beginning on the Border with Belarus will resolve the conflict. With the massive Russian force on the move, Zelensky and Western intelligence watchers said Monday morning that the coming 24 hours would be “crucial” to the conflict. On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces to go on combat readiness in response to Western sanctions and “aggression.”

DEBKAfile sketches the situation on the different fronts of the Ukraine war:

1. The Russians paused their first attempt to take Kyiv after invading Ukraine last Thursday to await fresh supplies and fuel and meanwhile assemble a massive convoy for the operation.

2. West intelligence analysts don’t rate the chances of the far inferior Ukraine army sustaining its resistance for long.

3. After entering Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv on Sunday, Russian troops pulled back during the day, there, too, to await heavy weapons reinforcements before going after an all-out offensive to seize the city. READ MORE