Sources claim that RUSSIAN troops are in danger of freezing to death in their tanks while Putin’s armed forces are bogged down in the mud and fighting a losing war in Ukraine.
A 40-mile column of tanks and armored vehicles remains trapped near Kiev more than a week after the assault on the Ukrainian capital began.
With a sudden cold snap, temperatures in Eastern Europe dropped to -10 degrees Celsius overnight, or as cold as -20 degrees, and Russian troops were trapped in what one ex-soldier called “40-ton iron freezers.”
The icy weather will also make life difficult for Putin’s occupiers, who are stuck about 20 miles from Kyiv for several days due to mechanical problems, fuel supply issues and heavy Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite images taken Wednesday morning show a jam of Russian military vehicles near Antonov Airport, just a few miles northwest of the outskirts of Kyiv.
South of Antonov, in the besieged city of Irpin, a badly damaged bridge can be seen further slowing down the Russian advance.
Queues can be seen forming around the bridge, suggesting that the Russian military may continue to advance towards Kyiv after two weeks of slow progress.
The large military convoy was first photographed on Feb. 28, according to satellite imagery released Tuesday by Maxar Technologies.
Yesterday, a senior US Department of Defense official said the convoy had not made it past Gostomel, not far from Antonov Airport.
Russian forces are reportedly trying to reach Kyiv in other directions, the official said.
This was stated by the former major of the British army Kevin Price. Mail online that Russian tanks would become nothing more than “40-ton freezers” when the temperature plummeted, and said that the harsh conditions would further sap the Russian military’s morale.
Glen Grant, senior defense expert at the Baltic Security Fund, said that if the Russian convoy was not fueled and able to move again, many soldiers would have to surrender or freeze to death.
“You just can’t sit and wait, because if you’re in a car, you’re waiting to be killed,” he told Newsweek.
“They’re not stupid.”
There are already reports that demoralized Russian troops are complaining about the war in intercepted phone calls to comrades and loved ones.
In telephone conversations, Putin’s troops say the war could drag on for “months” and say they are being “slaughtered” in Ukraine.
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Russian soldiers are reportedly “deserting their posts” after “large-scale casualties”, including the deaths of high-ranking generals.
However, the cold snap also worsens the lives of Ukrainian refugees, as well as children trapped in the war.
Yesterday, an eight-year-old girl died of dehydration in the city of Mariupol after Russian attacks left her without access to water, electricity or heating.
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Maxar Technologies has been tracking Russian military movements around Ukraine using satellite imagery since late last year.
Part of the column was photographed at roughly the same location as on 28 February, four days after the invasion began.
Additional photos released on Tuesday show bomb craters and a damaged bridge in Irpin.
The bridge was destroyed in a Russian airstrike, and desperate Ukrainians crossed the Irpin River on a makeshift path underneath to escape the shelling.
Ukrainian officials said yesterday that a safe evacuation corridor had opened from Irpin, but it is not clear how long it has been open and how many people have used it.
Ukraine has accused Russia of violating ceasefire agreements, although the Russian military denied firing at civilian convoys.
Since Feb. 24, Russia has fired more than 600 missiles from within or into Ukraine, according to US Department of Defense officials.
To date, more than two million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since the invasion began, more than half of them to Poland.
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