Wall Street Journal: Russia accelerates troop increase at Ukraine border

Russian forces near Ukraine have increased to 105 battalion tactical groups.

Russia has also transported about 500 warplanes around Ukraine and deployed 40 warships in the Black Sea, according to U.S. officials.

Exclusivefootage of the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of the Russian Federation, taken from the observation post of the People's Militia of the LPR, which, presumably, shows the moment of shelling, during which shells of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit the territory of the Tarasovsky district of the Rostov region of Russia.

Presumably, the fire is fired from a forest belt in the area of ​​​​the settlements of Pionerskoye and Khryashchevo using the Grad MLRS. There, 79 ODShBr are stationed at the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In Taganrog, refugees from the LPR and DPR were accommodated in the hall of a sports school. Later they will be taken to other cities of Russia.

Sentinel-1 SAR-imagery at 1546z today, February 19th, shows 13 contacts/ships off the coast of north-western Crimea.

Assess these to be prob Russian Navy ships, as this is an area with little civilian traffic, and few to no AIS contacts.

Europe has next to no gas left

Underground gas storage facilities (UGS) in Europe were 95.3% empty as of February 17, Russia’s state energy giant and major gas exporter Gazprom said on Saturday, citing data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

This means that Europe now has only 4.7% of its gas reserves left for the remainder of the winter season.

The volume of active gas in storage facilities is 21% or 8.3 billion cubic meters less compared to the same time last year. In total, 44.8 billion cubic meters have already been withdrawn from Europe’s UGS this winter.

Source: Reuters

Footage from the mobilization point in Lugansk.

Source: RIA

Belarus Announces Russian Troops Will Be Stationed In Country Indefinitely

Belarus has now reportedly announced that Russian troops will be stationed in the country 'indefinitely' and won't be going anywhere after 'exercises' are completed due to tensions in the Donbas region after fears that Russia had plans to occupy the region.

Belarus Defense Ministry Khrenin made an official announcement saying "Due to increased military activity near the borders and escalation in Donbas, Belarus and Russia decided to continue joint inspections of response forces".

What seems to be a Belarusian Light Armored Convoy spotted on the move earlier today near Mazyr in the Gomel Region, the column primarily consists of Cayman Armoured Vehicle and BTR-80s, also this is only about 40 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Source: Twitter

XBKCO (miscoded USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV) seems to be investigating the Belgorod area where we saw those forward deployments earlier tonight.

Russia is painting 'Z' on its military hardware as a form of Christian iconography whereby 'Z' is also 'Zayin' which the Russians intend to mean 'Weapon of the Holy Spirit'.

Russian Armored Column spotted earlier today in the Belgorod Region most likely heading toward the border with Ukraine, Interestingly this convoy while containing primarily MT-LBs and T-80s also contains TOS-1 Thermobaric Rocket Systems.

Last night Russia mobilized troops in occupied Transnistria.

Source: Telegram