A video has emerged from Russia showing a massive convoy of tanks and trucks speeding towards the Ukrainian border. Despite the heavy military presence, Russian President Putin said only humanitarian aid was being delivered to the region, which he described as being caught up in an internal conflict.
The terrifying footage showed tens of tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks amongst traffic near the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was “gravely concerned” at the situation while US President Joe Biden lent support to Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a 50-minute phone conversation yesterday.
Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other in recent weeks for a spike in violence in the eastern Donbass region where tensions have risen between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed seperatist forces.
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Commenters on the video shared their concern over the huge military presence on the roads.
One said: “This looks like a Kremlin roll of the dice that things will happen that keep them from physically engaging NATO or the US.
“It makes great TV-viewing back in the Russian Federation, but the cost of military losses, not so much.”
Another said: “Putin under pressure at home needs an external enemy to distract the Russians and have them praise the man who defends the motherland again.”
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Ukraine, Western countries and NATO have all accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of sending troops and heavy weapons to prop up proxies in Donbass.
Speaking yesterday Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told BBC Russia troops were gathering at Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders as well as “in the illegally occupied Crimea.
He added: “Ukraine is not looking for any escalation – we do not need war.”
In 2014 Russia seized both a huge swathe of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbass and annexed Crimea.
