Satellite captures massive Russian force in 3D video

An assortment of private satellite companies are sharing images of the Russian invasion into Ukraine taken from space.

Maxar Technologies' WorldView-3 satellite captured high-resolution images of a 40-mile-long (64 kilometers) Russian convoy moving into Ukraine on February 28th, four days after the invasion began. The company has since georegistered the data from its satellite imagery to generate a 3D model of the area around the convoy.

The video stitches together its satellite imagery into one continuous view, conveying the scope of the massive convoy. According to Maxar, the data "has an absolute accuracy in all directions of 3 meters [10 feet], which means that objects seen in the video are physically within that 3 meters zone in the real-world. This unique view, created with space-based data, allows viewers to have a better understanding of the on-the-ground situation when the area is not readily accessible."

The convoy is en route to the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv but has stalled about 19 miles (30 kilometers) out. Cloudy conditions have prevented more up-to-date images of the convoy from being taken by the WorldView-3 satellite and other optical-light satellites.

"We still assess that the convoy that everybody's been focused on is stalled. We have no reason to doubt Ukrainian claims ... that they have contributed to it being stalled by attacking it," a senior U.S. official told reporters, CNN reported on March 3rd.