Ballistic missiles, artillery pieces, armored vehicles… Hundreds of videos showing Russian military equipment en route to the border with Ukraine were posted on social networks during the winter of 2021-2022.
The world was able to authenticate several of these videos. Combined with satellite images, they document the unprecedented scale of this deployment. In total, within 250 kilometers of the Ukrainian borders, at least fifteen military bases and camps have seen an unusual increase in their war material.
100,000 Russian troops have been deployed
Iskander ballistic systems, capable of launching conventional or nuclear missiles with a range of 500 kilometers, are notably visible in several of these images. The world was able to locate them in Russia and Belarus, just over 300 kilometers from Kiev. Many artillery pieces, such as the 2S19 Msta, already used in the Donbass in 2014 on the Russian side, are also present.
In total, according to Ukraine and the United States, around 100,000 Russian troops were deployed to the Ukrainian border between April 2021 and February 2022.