Russian forces bearing down on Kyiv are regrouping northwest of the Ukrainian capital, satellite pictures showed, in what Britain said could be preparation for an assault on the city within days.

Ukraine accused Russian forces on Friday of bombing and shelling cities across the country, including hitting a psychiatric hospital near the eastern town of Izyum where hundreds of patients were sheltering in the basement.

Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s cities while its main attack force north of Kyiv has been stalled on roads since the invasion’s early days, having failed in what western countries say was an initial plan for a lightning assault on the capital.

Images released by private US satellite firm Maxar showed armoured units manoeuvring in and through towns close to an airport on Kyiv’s northwest outskirts, site of fighting since Russia landed paratroops there in the first hours of the war.

Other elements had repositioned near the settlement of Lubyanka just to the north, with towed artillery howitzers in firing positions, Maxar said.

“Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days,” Britain’s ministry of defence said in an intelligence update. “This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv.”

The British update said Russian ground forces were still making only limited progress, hampered by persistent logistical issues and Ukrainian resistance.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had “already reached a strategic turning point” in the conflict.

“It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it,” he said in a televised address.

In an overnight statement, the Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were regrouping after taking heavy losses. Ukraine had pushed Russians back to “unfavourable positions” in the Polyskiy district, near the Belarus border to the rear of the main Russian column heading towards Kyiv, it said.

Emergency services said no one was hurt in the psychiatric hospital struck in eastern Ukraine, as the patients were already sheltering in the basement.

But Oleh Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said 330 people had been in the building and called the attack “a war crime against civilians”.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Moscow.

It came less than two days after Russia bombed a maternity hospital in the besieged southern port of Mariupol. Ukraine said pregnant women were among those hurt there; Russia said the hospital was no longer functioning and was occupied by Ukrainian fighters when it was hit.

For a seventh straight day, Russia announced plans to cease fire to let civilians leave Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of people trapped with no food, water, heat or power.

All previous attempts to reach the city have failed with both sides accusing each other of failing to observe ceasefires.

Moscow denies it has been targeting civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to disarm and “de-Nazify” Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has tried to project an air of calm since ordering the invasion on February 24.

At a meeting with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko on Friday, Putin said there were “certain positive shifts” in talks with Ukrainians. He did not elaborate.

Putin green light for W. Asia fighters

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light on Friday to bring in thousands of fighters from West Asia to fight against Ukraine.

At a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, defence minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 16,000 volunteers in West Asia who were ready to come to fight with Russian-backed forces in the breakaway Donbass region.

“If you see that there are these people who want of their own accord, not for money, to come to help the people living in Donbass, then we need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone,” Putin said.

Shoigu also proposed that western-made Javelin and Stinger missiles that were captured by the Russian army in Ukraine should be handed over to Donbass forces. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 soon after Putin recognised the breakaway territories as independent states.