Russia has been moving more military supplies towards the Ukraine border following Vladimir Putin’s threatening comments towards the West.
As heightened fears of an imminent Russian invasion continue, footage from the Bryansk region, just north of the current frontline, shows a massive arrival of new conflict hardware.
In a video uploaded online soldiers can be seen driving off armoured infantry fighting vehicles used to transport troops into battle and provide direct-fire support.
Fuel tankers, covered trucks, diggers and other logistical vehicles were also brought to the area by train.
A second video uploaded online and filmed on Monday 20 December shows artillery and weaponry being removed at a railway station in the disputed region.
BBC Monitoring, which analyses the Russian media, reported: “Several similar videos have appeared on the same channel in recent weeks, all appearing to show large movements of heavy Russian Army ground equipment in southwestern regions of Russia adjacent to Ukraine.”
On Tuesday, President Putin oversaw a ceremony to handover two ultra-modern nuclear submarines to his navy.
It came after the Kremlin premier warned the West he was ready to take “retaliatory military-technical measures” if NATO refuses to bow to his demands on security guarantees for Russia.
Speaking to military officials, he said there was no room to retreat in the standoff currently centred on the former Soviet state.
And the Russian leader reiterated his demand for guarantees from the US and its allies that NATO will not expand eastwards, blaming the West for “tensions that are building up in Europe”.
Russia accuses NATO of planning to send intermediate-range nuclear missiles of its own to Ukraine.
Kremlin-backed separatist forces initiated the conflict in 2014 by entering the neighbouring country.
Some analysts fear a threatened further incursion into Ukrainian territory could come as early as January.
