NATO has issued 19 satellite images and maps showing what it says is a Russian military build-up on Ukraine's eastern frontier.
Russian fighter jets at fomerly vacant Buturlinovka Air base, 150km from the Ukainian border. Photo: AFP / DIGITAL GLOBE
The alliance estimates that "between 35,000 and 40,000" Russians, armed with tanks and military vehicles, have been deployed in over 100 sites to the east of Ukraine.
Brigadier Gary Deakin estimated the troops could be deployed in 12 hours at Moscow's command.
The pictures, mostly in black-and-white, were taken at the end of March and early April.
One shows 21 helicopters on a landing strip in the middle of a field near the city of Belgorod, some 40km from the border. Around 40 tanks and 100 infantry vehicles were lined up nearby.
Other photos show troop concentrations at other parts of the border alongside hundreds of troop transport vehicles, equipment and arms.
Others are of temporary air bases near the Azov Sea, between Ukraine and Russia, and close to Crimea.
