Russia seeking to encircle Ukraine’s capital in ‘coming days’: Pentagon

US defence official says Moscow is also attempting to seize Mariupol and Kharkiv in the east

People walk past burnt cars on Monday after the shelling of a residential area in Kiev, Ukraine. EPA

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The US Defence Department determined on Monday that Russia’s military in Ukraine plans to encircle Kiev in the “coming days” as well as seize control of two major cities in the east of the country.

A senior US defence official briefing reporters said Russia’s encirclement of the Ukrainian capital is a key objective for Moscow.

“Their advance on Kiev still appears to be their main line of effort, and we expect that they’re going to want to continue to move forward and try to encircle the city in coming days,” the official said.

US officials estimate that Russian forces are encamped 25 kilometres from Kiev as the invasion enters its fifth day.

Another Russian objective is seizing Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and the city of Mariupol in the east.

The shelling of Kharkiv intensified in the past 24 hours and Human Rights Watch told The Washington Post that Russian forces had “used Smerch cluster munition rockets, which disperse submunitions, or bomblets, in the attack”.

Amnesty International claimed that cluster munitions had also been used in the Ukrainian town of Okhtyrka on Friday.

But the US official saw signs of frustration and lack of preparedness on the Russian military side.

“Fuel and sustainment are unique challenges to [Russian troops] right now,” he said and added that Moscow did not plan for these logistical challenges.

Several videos shared online in the past 72 hours showed Russian tanks and armoured vehicles stranded on roads in Ukraine after they ran out of fuel.

Asked if the Russian mercenary group Wagner is involved in the fighting, the US official said there were “some indications” of its presence in Ukraine.

“It’s not exactly clear where or how much, but we’ve seen some indications that they’re being employed.”

The US official said Ukrainian resistance remains effective and their forces are “still putting up stiff and determined resistance … their air and missile defence capabilities are viable and effective and engaged”.

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  A monitor displays a projectile striking the regional state administration building in Kharkiv, as the Russian invasion continues. Reuters

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  People help a wounded woman in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kharkiv. EPA

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  Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry the body of a victim following shelling in Kharkiv. AP

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  Students who fled the conflict rest in a refugee camp in Voluntari, Romania. AP

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  Members of an Ukrainian civil defence unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown-up bridge on Kiev’s northern front. AFP

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  Civilians cross a river on Kiev's northern front. AFP

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  A woman takes photos of a destroyed accommodation building near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP

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  The city hall of Kharkiv, damaged by Russian shelling. AFP

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  Debris litters the square outside the damaged Kharkiv city hall. AFP

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  A Ukrainian woman sleeps on the floor of the railway station in Zahonyi close to the Hungary/Ukraine border. AFP

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  A medical worker attends to wounded man at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP

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  Refugees from Ukraine in a tent at the Medyka border crossing, Poland. AP

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  Debris outside the regional administration building, which city officials said was hit by a missile, in Kharkiv. Reuters

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  A student evacuated from Ukraine is embraced by her family after arriving at Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia. AFP

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  Rescuers in a building damaged by a missile in central Kharkiv. Reuters

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  An ambulance is visible through the damaged window of a vehicle hit by bullets in Kiev, Ukraine. Reuters

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  Territorial defence members prepare to head out on patrol in Kiev. EPA

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  UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech on screen during the opening of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. AP

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  A policeman detains a young demonstrator during a protest against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St Petersburg, Russia. AP

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  Local residents in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, prepare Molotov cocktails. Reuters

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  Residents clean a bomb shelter under an out-of-service cinema in central Zhytomyr. Reuters

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  Ukrainian volunteers tear cloth into strips to make camouflage nets in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP

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  Part of the military convoy north-west of Invankiv, Ukraine. AP

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  Mark Goncharuk, a young boy from Kiev, leaves his father behind as he travels with the rest of his family towards the border. Reuters

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  People hold an anti-war protest outside the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters

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  A crater caused by shelling on the outskirts of Kiev. AFP

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  People queue outside a grocery store in the Ukrainian capital. EPA

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  Ukrainian soldiers stand at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, in Kiev. EPA

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  Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, second left, and Davyd Arakhamia, faction leader of the Servant of the People party in the Ukrainian Parliament, third right, attend the peace talks in the Gomel region of Belarus. AP

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  People who have fled the Russian invasion in Ukraine, clamour to board a bus bound for a refugee centre established in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

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  Hanna Pavlovna Lukasz, from Mirhord, Ukraine, said her sons, aged 12 and 8, and her 66-year-old mother had been waiting on the Ukrainian side of the border crossing with Medyka, Poland, for four days. AP

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  A volunteer from Kiev prepares a rear post with trenches in the city. AFP

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  A child being treated for cancer rests in the bomb shelter of the oncology ward at a hospital in Kiev. Getty

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  Police officers check occupants of a suspicious car in Kiev, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters

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  A woman from Ukraine uses a phone to listen to a speech by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a refugee shelter in Beregsurany, Hungary. Reuters

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  Shelves empty of bread after a curfew was lifted as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kiev. Reuters

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  Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, left, and President Zelenskyy. AFP

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  Snow-covered shoes donated for those fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Reuters

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  People who have fled Ukraine wait for a bus to transport them away from the border crossing in Medyka. Reuters

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  Norwegian soldiers of the Nato-enhanced forward presence battalion pose at a military plane as they arrive at an airport in Kaunas, Lithuania. AP

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  A person fleeing Ukraine sits during snowfall at a temporary camp in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

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  Footage reportedly of Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road before a drone strike near Malyn, Ukraine. Reuters

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  An explosion after what are said to be Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road are struck by a drone. Reuters

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  The monument to Russian troops from the Second World War, after the figures’ hands were painted red, at the Red Army memorial in Sofia, Bulgaria. EPA

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  The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, is lit up with the colours of Ukraine’s national flag in a show of support. AP

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  Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the construction site of the National Space Agency on the premises of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, in Moscow. EPA

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  A man looks out from a train, at the railway station in Lviv, Ukraine. The UN has estimated the conflict could produce as many as four million refugees. AP

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  A Ukrainian boy waits for his mother after passing the border crossing point in Siret, northern Romania. EPA

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  Russian policemen detain a demonstrator in St Petersburg, during a protest against the country's military actions in Ukraine. EPA

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  Ukrainian soldiers at a check point in the city of Zhytomyr. Reuters

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  Residents prepare petrol bombs to defend the city, in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters

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  A pro-Russian fighter sits inside a tank in the separatist self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in the Luhansk region, Ukraine. Reuters

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  Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, second left, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, left, during their meeting in Moscow. AP

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  Ukrainians and supporters gather during a demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens against the Russian military's operation in Ukraine. AFP

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  Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicla after a battle in Kharkiv. AFP