Ukraine war: Russian military column seen heading towards Donbas

A video shared to social media on Monday shows a large column of Russian military vehicles near Matveev Kurgan, a settlement in Russia’s Rostov region.

The vehicles are seen facing north-west, in the direction of the Donbas region.

Vladimir Putin has vowed that Russia will achieve what he described as the "clear and noble" aims of its invasion of Ukraine, in his first trip outside Moscow since the war began.

Speaking at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far east of Russia, Putin said he had no doubts that Russia would achieve all of its objectives in Ukraine.

"Its goals are absolutely clear and noble," he said of his country’s military campaign. "It's clear that we didn't have a choice. It was the right decision.

"On the one hand, we are helping and saving people, and on the other, we are simply taking measures to ensure the security of Russia itself."

Russia is believed to be trying to connect occupied Crimea with the Moscow-backed separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbas region, and has laid siege to the strategically located city of Mariupol.