[Music]
in the early hours of thursday february
24th russia launched airstrikes on
ukraine and sent troops and military
equipment over the border from belarus
to crimea
many of the first troops came through
ukraine's northeastern border with
russia a line of attack that was weeks
in the making
the wall street journal analyzed dozens
of satellite images captured by maxar
technologies and planet labs verified
videos posted to social media and found
that the russian troops and military
equipment that came in from the east had
moved out of large visible garrisons and
dispersed into smaller harder-to-track
units along the border before they
attacked
russia had been amassing troops and
equipment near ukraine for weeks which
they said were for military exercises
satellite images from a camp in yanya
russia show a military training area
being built up
images from january 19th show that the
camp had expanded and that it was active
these tents are not snow-covered a sign
that they were likely being heated
tom bullock an intelligence expert who
analyzed these images identified bm27
uragan's which are multiple rocket
launcher systems
battalions made up of what are likely
2s19s vehicles with guns designed to
shoot shells long distances and
battalions of what looked to be infantry
fighting vehicles but by february 12th
the area had mostly emptied out
around the same time satellite images
show troops and equipment building up in
several regions closer to the russian
ukrainian border
at a training area east of course
satellite imagery from february 9 shows
a line of empty heavy equipment
transporters likely waiting to be loaded
with tanks
then four days later on february 13th we
can see the camp which bullock says had
expanded in size significantly over the
past few weeks was active the overturned
dirt signals people and equipment were
moving around
also on the 13th we see russian military
presence in two other key locations
close to the ukraine border
in the briansk region we see klimovo air
base where a new grouping of tents were
visible again with signs they were being
heated
in salati which is a camp used regularly
by the russian military we see a new
field camp and signs of movement in the
snow
north of belgrade we can see a
helicopter camp with more than 12 attack
and transport helicopters
and on february 15th in valyouki we see
another field of attack choppers
on february 15th russian officials
signaled they were de-escalating and
withdrawing some troops from the
ukrainian border
over the following days cloudy weather
obstructed views of many key border
locations from satellite images but
videos posted to social media suggest a
continued march of soldiers and
equipment towards the border with
ukraine from these positions the
ukrainian city of harkiff was in
striking distance and more troops could
quickly be added to the donboss region
the ukrainian capital of kiev is about
300 miles from the border
this video from belgrade which the
poster said they filmed on february 15th
shows a train traveling southwest
towards the border carrying various
equipment from the fourth tank division
including towed howitzers which shoot
artillery shells
a video posted february 16th from
belgrade shows the fourth tank division
heading south near the border bullock
says they likely came straight from
moscow which is significant because it's
highly unusual for them to be so far
outside their regular training area
on february 16th in tomorrow an attack
helicopter was filmed while landing at a
civilian airfield experts have also
identified a short-range air defense
system bullock says it was partially
obscured by a tarp a sign of camouflage
not storage and that it was in a
position to be used
a day later a video posted on february
17th roughly 16 miles from the ukraine
border in rilsk shows russian military
vehicles including a heavy equipment
transporter with a tank
then in a video posted the next day on
february 18th we returned to tamarovka
where bullock first identified an air
defense system
he says that on the air defense system
in this clip the radar which can be seen
here was in use
in the same video we see t90a tanks
positioned on the edge of the woods
facing the road indicating vehicles may
have started to disperse further into
wooded areas out of sight
in videos like this one posted in
belgrade on february 18th we see
markings that experts suspect identify
russian vehicles or convey other
tactical information
satellite images from february 21st and
22nd show how troops moved into remote
camps where land is likely being cleared
for additional troops
and we can see a new field hospital
added to a garrison on the outskirts of
belgrade suggesting possible casualties
to come