Images show new deployments of forces, 150 helicopters in southern Belarus - Maxar

(Reuters) - Satellite imagery taken on Friday showed several large deployments of ground forces and about 150 transport helicopters in southern Belarus, about 20 miles from the border with Ukraine, a private U.S. company said.

The images showed one large helicopter deployment near the Belarusian town of Chojniki, which had over 90 helicopters parked on a road with the deployment extending for more than five miles. Images also showed a large deployment of ground forces with several hundred vehicles in convoy position in several fields.

The images released by Maxar Technologies, which has been tracking the buildup of Russian forces for weeks, could not be independently verified by Reuters.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)