The Defense of Kyiv

February 24, 2022 – It was as sudden as it was brutal and relentless. Ukrainians woke up to find themselves plunged into the midst of war. Explosions and air raid sirens rang out here in Kyiv and cities across the country as Russia launched a full scale invasion on multiple fronts in the early hours of the morning, firing missiles at key military infrastructure sites.

March 7, 2022 – Vladimir Putin launched a full scale invasion into Ukraine on February 24, causing millions to flee. So far, the UN estimates that at least 350 civilians have been killed as the battle rages across the country. VICE News was in the capital Kyiv as the war started.

March 8, 2022 – Message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during Russia-Ukraine War

March 10, 2022 – Ukrainian officials claim the military have defeated a Russian tank regiment outside the capital Kyiv and videos appear to show a number of tanks on fire or destroyed. Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton says that the video seems to show a tank commander that was taken by surprise and is an example of an “unexpectedly incompetent” Russian operation.

March 10, 2022 – Drone footage shows the “ambush” of a Russian military convoy in Skybyn, just outside Brovary, a southeast suburb of Kyiv. Sky News has verified that the drone footage was released by Ukraine’s military forces. On that day, March 10, Ukrainian artillery attacked a Russian armored column at Skybyn as it was trying to move in from the north. On March 11, there were fights in Brovary as Russian troops were trying to encircle Kyiv from its east. On April 2, the whole of Kyiv Oblast, where Brovary is located, was declared free of invaders by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense after Russian troops had left the area.

“I’m not a woman. I’m a person. I’m a citizen of this country. I’m a soldier, a surgeon, a combat medic, and I need to protect this country.” — Daria Filipieva

March 18, 2022 – Sergeant Daria Filipieva, a combat medic in the Ukrainian army, couldn’t make it back to her unit when the war broke out, so she joined the volunteer forces defending the capital.

April 1, 2022 – Russia’s 331st Guards Parachute Regiment is considered “the best of the best”, but BBC Newsnight has been tracing the casualties as the unit battles through Ukraine. The regiment’s commanding officer – Col Sergei Sukharev – died in mid-March. His chief of staff and numerous other officers have also fallen. The regiment previously served in the Balkans, Chechnya and the 2014 Russia invasion in the Donbas.

Tracking the unit through Ukraine, Newsnight’s diplomatic and defense editor Mark Urban looks at the outpouring of grief and anger from Russia in response to the devastating losses. What went wrong for the once-elite regiment? And what does its fate tell us about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? This film was produced by Maria Jevstafjeva and Louis Harris-White.

April 11, 2022 – A Ukrainian mother cried out after identifying her son’s body in a manhole in the village of Buzova on April 10, 2022. He was found alongside another fallen soldier behind a highway service station near the capital Kyiv. The mangled body of her son, Yevhenii, was covered, but the mother recognized him by his shoes. According to a village official, both men were members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Force and had been reported missing since March 16, 2022. WARNING: this video includes content some viewers may find distressing.

April 21, 2022 – Journalist Volodymyr Zolkin interviews a surviving Russian ‘VDV’ airborne soldier on when he landed in Belarus, his first helicopter ride to Ukraine and finally his eventual capture by Ukrainian forces. Interview By: Volodymyr Zolkin

April 23, 2022 – On April 1, 2022, the Russian occupiers drove the Russian occupiers out of the town of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region. Nine days after the liberation, we visited this city, talked to its inhabitants and saw all the horrors brought here by the Russian army.

May 1, 2022 – Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on Modern Warfare continues with this video on the first phase of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We discuss the build-up to the new stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War, explain how Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continued, and cover events between February 24th and April 7th. You see how Ukraine managed to win the first phase of the war, and how Ukraine set up the second phase of the war – the fight for Donbas.

May 5, 2022 – The fight for Moschun – CNN’s Matt Rivers retraces how the battle around Kyiv unfolded and how Ukraine won.

May 7, 2022 – In mid-March, we published an interview with Mr. Volodymyr, an employee of the Gostomel Airport who spent 16 days in captivity and miraculously escaped from the occupied village. At the beginning of April, the Armed Forces liberated Mr. Volodymyr’s native village and he decided to return HOME, we went on this road with him. What we saw and heard in the vicinity of Gostomel in the first days after their release – see our video.

May 26, 2022 – The most spectacular event at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the Hostomel airport landing by Russian airborne forces. In this video I will analyze the available footage and give some geographic and historical context.

May 30, 2022 – Ukrainian mother Olena Gnes has been keeping a video diary of what her family’s experience has been throughout the war. CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports on her rare perspective.

June 4, 2022 – The village of Andriyivka in the Kyiv region is a small Mariupol, as the locals call it. This is a small settlement that was practically wiped off the face of the earth, and perhaps the most destroyed settlement in Kyiv region.

August 4, 2022 – “Valdemar” from Kyiv Territorial Defense was wounded near Kharkiv in early July. At the end of the July, we already met him at the training ground. He is the commander of the mortar unit. “The orcs danced above us for two and a half hours, they thought we were all dead,” says the commander. After that battle, all his fighters came out wounded: some with concussions, some without legs or arms. But part of them got back to the military and is currently training not that far from the positions. When they finish training – they’ll get back to the combat duty.

“When the war started, we studied by ourselves directly at the front. People learn very quickly, because there is no more time,” says another commander, “Nafanya”. Most of those who train here at the practice field have already been in combat. Now they are improving their qualifications, some of the infantrymen are being retrained as artillerymen. “Two days, and then to “zero [to the frontline]” the instructor “Uncle Slava” answers to us when asked how quickly he is ready to teach a soldier to shoot with SPG-9 recoilless anti-tank gun.

August 15, 2022 – Ми вже показували вам кілька репортажів з Гостомельського аеропорту. Масштаби завданих ворогу збитків були там настільки значними, що ми зробили з цього місця не один, а одразу кілька матеріалів. Гостомельський аеропорт, нагадаємо, це десятки одиниць знищеної ворожої техніки. Тоді ми, вражені побаченим, не знали подробиць тієї битви. Знали лише про те, як ювелірно знищувала ворога наша артилерія. Тепер же знаємо деталі. Про них нам розповів військовослужбовець ДШВ Дмитро, позивний «Зевс», який разом з трьома підлеглими був навідником нашої артилерії в Гостомельському аеропорту протягом двох перших тижнів війни. Саме завдяки йому і його побратимам наша артилерія знала як і куди бити точно так, аби ворог поніс тут максимальних втрат у техніці і живій силі.

August 17, 2022- Life in Kyiv during the war.

October 4, 2022 – Looted scientific laboratories, digs and trenches in the radioactive Red Forest, swastikas, and destroyed archives. Such ‘improvements’ Russians left behind after their occupation of the Chornobyl zone. Russian troops entered the exclusion zone from Belarus on the first day of a full-scale invasion. Locals say that the Chornobyl zone was a kind of ‘sanatorium’ for the occupiers. It was here that they came to rest from the battles in the suburbs of Kyiv.

November 6, 2022 – The power of women — preserving the lights of home. This is a very small, nearly invisible story, a small piece of a much larger heroic tale. It is about the power of Ukrainian women who quietly resisted the Russian army to protect and defend their families and neighbors, their village, their homeland, against the Russian armed forces that had invaded their country. Under threat of execution, the people of a small Ukrainian village near the Russian border became a small flickering light of resistance in the darkness of invasion. They gathered their strength and belief in each other, and discovered that they have a serious case of bravery and resilience, a quality of character that seems to be rather common these days in Ukraine.

“Remember, if we find her, we’ll shoot the children first, then you.” This is how the Russian military threatened the residents of the Ivankiv community, a small village of about 10,000 souls northwest of Kyiv. The Russians were searching for Ivankiv’s leader, Tetyana Svyridenko. The villagers did not surrender Tetyana to the Russians. Tetyana herself remembers the occupation like this: “There was no doubt that I would stay, that this is my community, and I would be here, no matter what happened to us there.” It was decided that the hospital would remain open. The chief doctor took responsibility. There was a small bakery that baked as much as it could.

“I thank the people of this community. They supported, helped, and saved each other, and due to this, the community survived.” This is a story about how the Ivankiv village community survived the occupation. How Prymachenko’s paintings were saved from the burning museum and how the village is currently being restored. It is part of a special project called Women’s Power. This and other stories were gathered in cooperation with the UN Women Ukraine project “Decentralization Reforms and Community Security: Transformative Approaches to Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women in Ukraine,” funded by the Government of Denmark.

November 23, 2022 – This video footage, recorded with helmet cams and drones, is of an element of Special Forces from the Ukrainian National Guard operating behind enemy lines. The Ukrainian soldiers are in close combat with a Russian element south of Dibrova, which at the time was within Russian held territory. This video is a raw compilation of the event by one of the operators who participated in that mission. Dibrova (population about 200) is a small settlement in Zhytomyr Oblast on the Ukraine border with Belarus. The area was strongly contaminated in the Chernobyl nuclear explosion of April 26, 1986.

December 3, 2022 – Original source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v20F… (also shown above : August 15, 2022).

December 30, 2022 – “We couldn’t believe what was actually happening until we actually saw the pictures of Ukrainian soldiers on the streets of Kherson and people in her son hug and cry and sing.” – Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun recalls hearing of Russia’s retreat from Kyiv and Kharkiv.

January 3, 2023 – It is 8 am on February 24, 2022. Although no one in Ukraine realizes it yet, what is about to unfold in a relatively unassuming part of the country will be arguably the single most important event in Ukrainian history. The stakes could not be higher: the country itself is on the line. This is story of the Battle of Hostomel Airport.

0:00 Introduction
1:43 Prologue
6:12 Mobilization
10:36 Russia’s Plan
12:44 The First Shots
16:37 Interlude
17:58 Ukraine’s Back Up Plan
20:43 The Counterattack
23:51 Epiolgue

The Battle of Antonov Airport, also known as the Battle of Hostomel Airport, was a military engagement which occurred at the Antonov Airport in Hostomel, Kyiv Oblast, during the Kyiv offensive of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, a few hours after President of Russia Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian troops of the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) made an air assault on Antonov Airport with the objective of capturing it. The airport held strategic value as it was located less than 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) outside of the capital Kyiv, which would allow Russian troops to airlift more troops and heavier equipment to directly threaten the city. However, the Ukrainian military responded with a counterattack which encircled the unsupported Russian forces and repelled the initial assault.

The attack resumed on the next day with another air assault by the VDV combined with a ground assault by armored reinforcements coming from the Belarusian border, breaking through the Ukrainian defenses. The airport was then captured by the Russian forces. Despite this, the unexpected Ukrainian resistance foiled the plans of a quick capitulation of Kyiv, and the airport was too damaged to be used as a functional airstrip. The Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest airplane, was destroyed in its hangar during the battle. Antonov Airport, or the Hostomel Airport, is a major international cargo airport located in the town of Hostomel, just at the outskirts of the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. The airport was owned and operated by the Antonov State Enterprise, the Ukrainian state-owned aerospace and air defense company.

The airport hosted the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest airplane and was also used as an airstrip for the Ukrainian Air Force. As Hostomel is located just outside Kyiv, around 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) away, and could give quick access to the capital, it was strategically important. In the time leading up to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) obtained detailed information about Russian attack plans. CIA director William J. Burns travelled to Ukraine in January 2022, and informed the Ukrainian leadership that Russia intended to capture Antonov Airport for an airbridge, which would allow Russian forces to quickly move into Kyiv to “decapitate the government.”

Analysts believed that President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the rest of the Russian leadership assumed that such a quick operation would throw Ukraine into disarray, resulting in the collapse of the Ukrainian military and allowing Russia to install a puppet government. Madison Policy Forum analyst John Spencer argued that this would have secured a military victory for Russia, albeit probably producing a massive Ukrainian insurgency. However, the warning by the CIA helped the Ukrainian military to prepare for a possible attack on Antonov Airport. Regardless, the airport only held a small garrison of about 300 National Guard troops, as the remainder had been moved to the frontline in eastern Ukraine.

The Battle – February 24, 2022

On February 24, 2022, around 05:30 am local time, President Putin announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine. At around 8:00 a.m. a formation of 20 to 34 Russian helicopters arrived to secure Antonov Airport in Hostomel, a suburb of Kyiv, in an attempt to create an airbridge in which troops and equipment could muster less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Kyiv. The helicopter formation consisted of Mi-8s carrying potentially a hundred to several hundreds of Russian airborne troops escorted by Ka-52 attack helicopters. The paratroopers possibly consisted of the 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade and/or 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade.

The air assault was captured on video by both civilians and soldiers. Flying low, the Russian helicopters made their approach from the Dnieper River and were immediately attacked by Ukrainian small arms fire and MANPADS. The Russian helicopters countered by deploying flares. Several Mi-8s were recorded taking hits and hitting the water. At least one Ka-52 was shot down; its two pilots ejected. The helicopters prepared the airborne landing by attacking the airport with rockets. Some Ukrainian air defenses at the airport were precisely hit and destroyed during this initial attack; Ukrainian officials later concluded that an airport employee had been hired by Russian intelligence to reveal these positions. Though the rocket bombardment successfully screened the landings, it failed to significantly weaken the Ukrainian defenses around the airport.

Once disembarked, the Russian airborne units began to capture the airport. The roughly 300 Ukrainian defenders were not well equipped, and included many draftees who had never seen combat. They could only offer limited resistance, though one national guardsman, Serhiy Falatyuk, successfully shot down a Russian helicopter with an 9K38 Igla, “boosting the spirits of” the conscripts. As fighting intensified, the Ukrainian air defenses became more effective. The helicopter of Russian commander Capt. Ivan Boldyrev was hit and forced to make an emergency landing. As the Russian paratroopers landed in growing numbers and fanned out, the Ukrainian garrison was overwhelmed. The Russian forces were thus able to secure the airport.

This success was due to the Ukrainian military being taken by surprise by the speed of the initial Russian attack, despite the preparations made after the CIA’s warning. The paratroopers then began preparing for the arrival of 18 Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifters carrying fresh troops from Russia. Despite overcoming the initial Ukrainian resistance, the paratroops continued to be engaged by local armed civilians and the 3rd Special Purpose Regiment. The Ukrainians also began to bombard the airport with heavy artillery. Ukrainian Gen. Valery Zaluzhny recognized the danger of the Russian bridgehead at Hostomel, and ordered the 72nd Mechanized Brigade under Col. Oleksandr Vdovychenko to organize a counter-attack.

At the “critical moment” of the battle, a large-scale Ukrainian counterattack was launched by the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade of the National Guard, backed by the Ukrainian Air Force. Lacking armored vehicles, the Russian forces were dependent on air support to stave off the Ukrainian advances.

Two Russian Su-25s were witnessed attacking Ukrainian positions. Ukrainian warplanes which survived the opening Russian missile strikes took part in providing air support for the National Guard units; these included at least two Su-24s and a MiG-29. The Ukrainians were swift in rushing more troops to the airport to support the counterattack. These reinforcements included the Georgian Legion, and a unit of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces. With the battle ongoing, the Russian Il-76s carrying reinforcements could not land; they were possibly forced to return to Russia. Ukrainian military units surrounded the airport and pushed back the Russian forces by the evening, forcing remaining Russian airborne troops to retreat to forests outside of the airport.

Georgian Legion commander Mamuka Mamulashvili later claimed that his men ran out of ammunition in the battle, whereupon he used his car to run over retreating Russian paratroopers. Later, the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade posted on their Facebook page an image of their soldiers celebrating the victory, while holding a Ukrainian flag riddled with bullet holes. The Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest airplane, was at the airport at the time of the opening phase of the battle. It was initially confirmed to be intact by an Antonov pilot, despite the fighting. However, on February 27, a Ukroboronprom press release claimed that the Mriya had been destroyed by a Russian airstrike. On March 4, Russian state-owned television channel Channel One Russia aired footage showing that the Mriya had been destroyed.

February 25, 2022

On February 25, 2022, Russian mechanized ground forces advancing from Belarus combined with another air assault by the VDV, took control of the airport after partially breaking through Ukrainian defenses at the Battle of Ivankiv. Some of the armored vehicles were ambushed before reaching Hostomel, halting the reinforcements for a time, but nonetheless they entered the airport and helped to expel the Ukrainian defenders. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the capture came following an operation that involved some 200 helicopters. The figure of about 200 Ukrainian casualties and no casualties on the Russian side was announced. This claim was met with skepticism, with Timur Olevsky, a journalist who witnessed the battle, outright refuting this claim.

Nevertheless, Russian ground forces established a foothold in Hostomel and began to man checkpoints inside the town. It was speculated that the Ukrainian defenders may have sabotaged the runway ahead of the advancing Russian ground forces. The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs initially denied that the airport had been fully captured by the Russian forces, stating that it had been “changing hands” and that the battle was ongoing. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also insisted that the Russian claim of the massive Ukrainian casualties was “an absolute lie”, while the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense declared that the airfield was too badly damaged to be used by Russian troops. Later in the day, Ukraine confirmed that Russian forces were in control of the airport.

Analysis

Security analyst Andrew McGregor described the battle for Antonov Airport as “Russian Airborne Disaster”. According to him, the initial Russian operation had aimed at securing an early access for the invasion forces into Kyiv to end the entire war within a day or two. Instead, Russian intelligence had failed to assess the actual concentration of Ukrainian defenders around the airport and assumed only token defenses. As the initial landing force was too small to hold the locality, while the Russian military was unable to secure air transport for reinforcements as well as prevent Ukrainian counterattacks, this led to the destruction of the first landing force.

McGregor argued that the failure to take Antonov Airport and another airport at Vasylkiv at the invasion’s start ended Russia’s chance to bring the conflict to swift conclusion. Researchers of the Atlantic Council also argued that Ukraine’s ability to defend the airport for two days “possibly prevent[ed] a rapid capture” of Kyiv by Russia. Michael Shoebridge of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute argued that “the rapid strike was meant to paralyze the central government and demoralize the Ukrainian forces”, but that this operation failed. Royal United Services Institute associate director Jonathan Eyal described the initial Russian failure to take the airport as “a turning point” in the war. Journalist Patrick J. McDonnell stated that “Russia lost the battle for Kyiv with its hasty assault” on the airport.

Researchers Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans argued that the operation failed not just because of the initial Ukrainian defense at the airport, but also because of the Russian advance being stalled in the subsequent Battle of Hostomel. As a result, a large quantity of Russian troops and equipment was left waiting at Antonov Airport, subject to constant Ukrainian shelling. Mitzer and Oliemans expressed the belief that the battles for the airport and city of Hostomel “broke the back of the Russian assault on Kyiv”. Researcher Severin Pleyer suggested that the battle of Antonov Airport showcased the Russian military’s general failures during the invasion, including difficulties with main weapon systems, failures in logistics, coordination, and planning, as well as a lack of leadership and training.

According to him, the fighting for the airport also highlighted that the Russian battalion tactical groups are ill-suited for warfare, as they hinder coordination and communication. Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi later argued that the fall of the airport “played a negative role” for the Ukrainian forces, but that “artillery fire aimed at the runway and disembarkation sites delayed the landing significantly and frustrated the plan to capture Kyiv.”.

Journalist Andreas Rüesch also argued that the Battle of Antonov Airport, alongside other battles during the invasion, disproved the myth of the extreme capabilities and near-invincibility of the Russian Airborne Forces, claims which had been extensively fostered by propaganda in Russia. In reference to the first day of fighting, Pleyer described the battle as the worst defeat inflicted on the Russian Airborne Forces in recent history. Several days after the airport’s capture, Russian forces were able to partially restore its landing fields for aircraft to use, though the airport mainly came to serve as a hub to store equipment and house troops.

Aftermath

Despite the loss of the airport, Ukrainian forces continued to engage the Russian forces in Hostomel. Eyewitnesses recorded videos of allegedly a Russian tank column burning in the distance and Ukrainian Mi-24s firing rockets at Russian positions. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that Ukrainian forces deployed BM-21 Grad in Kyiv to bombard Russian forces occupying the airport. Olevsky stated that he believes casualties for both Russian and Ukrainian may number in the hundreds. On February 26, 2022, Ukrainian forces claimed that the Ukrainian Alpha Group unit destroyed a column of Russian armored vehicles near Hostomel. Sophia Fedyna, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, alleged that Russian spetsnaz captured some members of the Ukrainian National Guard and were wearing their uniforms.

She asked Ukrainian citizens and fighters to speak only in Ukrainian to help identify Russian saboteurs. As of February 27, 2022, the airport remained under Russian control as clashes began to shift to the towns of Bucha and Irpin to the south, where Ukrainian forces claimed to have halted the Russian advances, contesting Russian forces in Hostomel amid intense fighting. On February 27, the Security Service of Ukraine released an alleged intercepted conversation of Russian forces in Hostomel reporting casualties and requesting to be evacuated. On the same day, Ukrainian forces bombarded the airport with artillery, and claimed to have destroyed Russian equipment, vehicles, and personnel. The next day, a Russian military convoy stretching 40 miles (64 km) arrived at the airport in preparation for an assault on Kyiv.

As of March 28, 2022, satellite imagery showed no Russian forces inside the airport. On March, 29 Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin announced a withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv area, including the abandonment of Hostomel Airport. By April 2, Ukrainian forces had regained control of the airport following a large-scale Russian withdrawal along the Kyiv axis. In their hasty retreat, Russian troops destroyed much of their own equipment, while other materiel was captured intact by the Ukrainians. In addition, other Russian equipment had been destroyed by Ukrainian artillery strikes before the withdrawal. Overall, Russia lost at least seven armored fighting vehicles, 23 infantry fighting vehicles, three armored personnel carriers, one anti-aircraft gun, two field artillery pieces, three helicopters, as well as 67 trucks, vehicles and jeeps at Antonov Airport.

January 18, 2023 – A helicopter carrying the leadership team of Ukraine’s interior ministry crashed near a kindergarten and residential block in the Kyiv region on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people, including all nine people on board, according to officials. A further 25 people were injured following the incident in the city of Brovary Wednesday, including 11 children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday. Fourteen bodies were found at the crash site, including one child and all nine people who were on board the helicopter – six ministry officials and three crew members, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES). Ukrainian National Police confirmed that Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, First Deputy Minister Yevheniy Yenin and State Secretary Yuriy Lubkovychis were among the dead.

January 19, 2023 – The Battle of Kyiv, February 25, 2022 – March 31, 2022

00:00 – Intro
02:15 – Russian Invasion of Ukraine, February 24, 2022
11:31 – Battle for Antonov airport
14:21 – Battle of Vasylkiv airport
16:26 – Battles of Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin began
17:32 – Battle of Irpin
21:44 – Battle of Hostomel
22:39 – Battle of Moschun
27:59 – Battle of Makariv
29:14 – Russian advance from Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts
30:41 – Battle of Lukashivka
31:17 – Battle of Brovary
32:23 – Russian withdraval and aftermath

February 22, 2023 – On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. One of the principal targets was Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Most outside observers, including U.S. intelligence, believed that the political center of would fall quickly. But as the hours turned to days, and the days turned to weeks, Ukraine proved that Kyiv would not fall so easily. But the story of how Kyiv survived is complicated. A combination of Russian miscalculations and clever Ukrainian strategy made the difference. The dreaded 64-kilometer Russian Kyiv convoy fell apart, giving Ukraine a fighting chance for the rest of the war.

00:00 The Russian Kyiv Convoy Departs
03:55 Russia’s Mobilization
11:52 Russia Tries to Keep a Secret
21:21 Russia’s Ticking Time Bomb
24:04 Ukraine’s Game Plan
24:31 Keeping Zelensky Alive
27:46 Stopping Russian Sky Bridges
29:53 Canceling out the Russian Air Force
32:36 Repelling the Ground Assault
38:25 How Ukraine Destroyed the Convoy
45:47 Epilogue
48:31 Happy Trails, Times New Roman!

February 26, 2023 – In early March 2022, as Russian troops approached Kyiv, marines built three pontoon bridges to gain a foothold across the Irpin River. But by blowing up a dam, Ukrainian forces flooded the area — and pushed back Russian troops who abandoned their armor in the flood waters.

March 2, 2023 – Russia lost half its VDV paratroopers in Ukraine war. Why? | Russia Ukraine update. Russia paratroopers – the VDV – are supposed to be the best of the best. The 45,000-strong elite and experienced Russian airborne forces have a reputation for ingenuity, toughness, and violence. What’s more, its soldiers are among Kremlin’s best equipped and best trained fighters. This makes it all the more shocking that, seven months after Vladimir Putin ordered his armies to invade Ukraine in February 2022, half of them were dead. Here, Chris Pleasance examines how 50 percent of Putin’s elite fighting force were wiped out as Ukraine put up a fierce defence of its country, and what that means for the Kremlin’s remaining army.

0:00 The best? Russia VDV paratroopers were supposed to the best of the best…
0:55 But just seven months into Ukraine war, half of them were wiped out
1:52 VDV troops hits Kyiv, but Ukraine fights back
2:46 Disaster on the river in Donbass
3:44 Putin’s humiliation in Kherson
4:39 What happens when you lose half of your soldiers?

April 2, 2023 – For the first time in decades, a major European city was attempted to be captured. A small airfield, situated 10 kilometers away from the Ukrainian capital, has become a key to capturing Kyiv. It was assaulted by elite Russian paratroopers flying tens of helicopters. However, they faced regular Ukrainian fighters in a battle that defined Kyiv’s fate.

April 2, 2023 – This video contains materials from the movie Against All Odds (Зупинити Голіафа). All of us remember the day when Russian troops were forced from the Kyiv region last year. Russia attempted to lay siege to the city of Kyiv with 107 battalion tactical groups, 1000s of armored vehicles, and over 30,000 troops. After heated battles, Ukrainian defenders liberated the areas meter-by-meter, despite facing tremendous damage that Russians had left behind. However, little do people know about one more secret weapon Ukrainian defenders had in store to ‘welcome’ the invaders. And here’s a story about a hero that has kept watch on Ukraine’s independence for centuries.

April 2, 2023 – February 2022. Russia has launched the largest ground military operation since WW2. The crime of aggression was followed by total impunity and the perpetration of war crimes against the civilian population. The horrors lived through are comparable to Nazi war crimes committed on the occupied territories. Hear the stories of the survivors in our special report from the Kyiv region.

June 15, 2023 – A hundred years ago, a unit known as the Black Zaporozhians fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians. Their descendants later defended their homeland during World War II. Today, the 72nd Brigade, named after the Black Zaporozhians, is once again fighting for the freedom of their homeland. They are successfully doing so in the most intense areas of the frontline.