One week after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced a partial withdrawal of troops from the border with Ukraine, newly released satellite images show a different reality. In addition to redeployments in the Belgorod-Valuyki area in western Russia, where there has been a lot of military activity over recent days, new military activities continue to emerge in Belarus.
A satellite image collected by Maxar Technologies on Tuesday morning shows a new deployment, most likely Russian, at an airfield in the village of Velikii Bokov in Belarus. The site is 25 miles from the Ukrainian border, and about 110 miles north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
A Times analysis of prior satellite imagery from that location found that it had been active only since mid-Feburary; a video posted on Feb. 14 showed military fuel tanks heading toward the airfield. Tuesday’s imagery shows that more than 100 vehicles and dozens of tents have arrived.
Some of the locations in Belarus and western Russia are possibly intended as support sites for combat units in case of a Russian attack on Ukraine.
In Belgorod, a new field hospital has been set up over the last week at a military garrison 25 miles from the border.
