Image Credit: Maxar/GettyImages 
Kyiv is today bracing for dramatic escalation in bloodshed as terrifying satellite images revealed a column of Russian tanks and artillery almost 40 miles long snaking towards the Ukrainian capital – seemingly with the aim of surrounding and besieging it.
The convoy is made up of hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces, attack vehicles and support trucks that stretches all the way from Hostomel – around 15 miles from central Kyiv – to the village of Prybirs’k – some 40 miles away – mobilised with the intention of bombing the capital into submission.
Observers warn that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his ex-Soviet is about to enter a brutal new phase, abandoning precision strikes against key infrastructure and military bases that met with crushing defeats in the early days of the war and instead resorting to ‘medieval tactics’ to try and force a bloody victory.
It mirrors the tactics that Russia’s military used against rebel forces in Syria while fighting alongside dictator Bashar al-Assad, where cities were surrounded and ordered to surrender before Putin’s men launched indiscriminate bombing campaigns that killed thousands of civilians and levelled entire neighbourhoods.
The city of Mariupol, in Ukraine’s south, said early Tuesday that bombardment had already started – with the mayor saying it is under ‘constant shelling’ by Russian forces using artillery, Grad rockets, and fighter jets targeting civilians areas such as schools and homes which had left many dead, including women and children.
Power to the city, which is in danger of being surrounded by Russian forces, has been cut – region head Pavlo Kyrylenko said Tuesday – but it remains under Ukrainian control.
Kherson, another key city located in southern Ukraine with a bridge over the Dnieper River, also came under bombardment by Russian forces today as missiles landed near civilian buildings on the outskirts and troops were pictured moving through the streets.