– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

The Russian unprovoked and illegal  invasion of Ukraine began in 2014,  

but in 2022 it entered a full-scale phase. So far,  our videos have been summaries of the most recent  

important events happening on the battlefield in  Ukraine, along with crucial diplomatic, economic,  

and political developments which have had a  direct impact on this battlefield. But enough  

time has passed as the three-day operation  turned into a year-long bloody conflict,  

so we can start looking back at some of  the most defining battles of the war.  

Undoubtedly, the Battle of Kyiv is at the top of  this list. Despite the odds being stacked against  

it, despite its chief allies lacking confidence  in its abilities to prevent the Russian army from  

reaching its objectives, Ukraine was bracing for  a battle to defend its capital, which may well be  

the defining moment of the Russo-Ukrainian  war and the Ukrainian statehood at large. 

After months of warnings from the United States  and the United Kingdom about the imminent Russian  

invasion of Ukraine, after several ill-fated  attempts to reach a diplomatic solution amidst  

Russia’s uncompromising stance, after a long  period of speculations, Vladimir Putin finally  

declared a so-called Special Military Operation  for demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine  

on February 24. The Russian army attacked  Ukraine from the north towards Kyiv, from  

the northeast towards Kharkiv, from the southeast  towards the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbas,  

and from the South towards Kherson, Mykolaiv,  and Odesa. Later we will dedicate videos to  

other most important battles of the war  in Ukraine, but today our focus is Kyiv. 

The war started with a massive airstrike campaign  by Russia on Ukrainian air defense systems,  

military bases, military aircraft, and critical  infrastructure to cripple the Ukrainian military  

potential to respond, overwhelm Ukraine and  demonstrate the futility of any resistance in  

the face of the mighty Russian army and its sheer  firepower. But before the start of a full-scale  

invasion, the Ukrainian command relocated much  of its military equipment and personnel outside  

their usual bases, significantly decreasing the  effectiveness of the initial Russian mass strike.  

Nevertheless, this did not force the Russian  command to rethink its second step of moving  

its land forces into Ukraine. Investigations and  reports of Western media indicate that Putin and  

his intelligence community were convinced that the  Ukrainian government would be too weak to resist,  

the Ukrainian public would welcome  the Russian army as liberators,  

and the Ukrainian military would collapse  upon facing the Russian military. Hence, the  

Russian military prepared logistics for a short  conflict, during which Kyiv was supposed to fall. 

This calculation went horribly wrong, as the  Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelensky and his  

government decided to stay and fight instead  of relocating to western Ukraine or Europe,  

as the Ukrainian public resisted the occupation.  Thousands joined the Territorial Defense Brigades,  

and the Ukrainian military proved to be  a much more formidable foe than expected.  

Moreover, Kyiv, specifically, is a difficult place  to invade. The city and its surroundings have many  

forests, rivers, numerous towns and villages, and  narrow roads between them, all factors beneficial  

for the defending side. Also, the weather in late  February was warm, causing the snow to melt and  

the muddy terrain, making it very difficult for  heavily armoured vehicles to move anywhere but on  

the roads. Commander of Kyiv’s defense, Colonel  General Oleksandr Syrskyi, ordered the erection  

of two rings of defense - a smaller one inside  Kyiv and a larger one on the city’s outskirts.  

Kyiv was divided into sectors, each getting its  commander to manage the defenses. Artillery was  

deployed in the Northwestern and  Northeastern outskirts of Kyiv. 

On February 24, elements of the Russian  35th Combined Arms Army entered Ukraine  

through Chornobyl, the elements of the 36th  Combined Arms Army advanced towards Chernihiv,  

while the elements of the 41st Combined Arms Army  invaded Sumy oblast with a common goal of reaching  

the capital Kyiv. Estimated 15k-20k Russian  soldiers moved in from the west bank of Dnipro,  

while an additional 20k-25k advanced on Kyiv  from Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts. The vicinity  

of Kyiv was defended only by the 72nd Mechanized  Brigade, elements of the Ukrainian National Guard,  

special forces, and newly established volunteer  groups of the Territorial Defense Brigades.  

The Russian electronic warfare tools  immediately disabled Ukrainian communications,  

but the reforms enacted in the Ukrainian  army, making it more decentralized,  

allowed it to counter this. Reported 26k Ukrainian  soldiers trained by the US and NATO since 2014  

helped them to become more capable commanders and  soldiers. As a result, the Ukrainian military was  

relatively prepared to operate when the advancing  Russian army disabled their communications.  

Moreover, Elon Musk started supplying Ukraine with  his Starlink satellite broadband service early  

in the war, allowing the Ukrainian military  to find alternative communication methods. 

On the morning of February 24, Russian columns  started moving toward Kyiv from Chornobyl,  

Chernihiv, and Sumy oblasts. Two days before  that, the Ukrainian border patrols fell back  

towards Benevka, Vilcha, and the abandoned city  of Chornobyl on the western bank of Dnipro in  

anticipation of the reported 30 Russian Battalion  Tactical Groups (around 20k men) invading from  

this direction. Reportedly these BTGs belonged  to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division,  

the 98th Guards Airborne Division, and the  155th Separate Marine Brigade. The 1st Separate  

Battalion defended the notorious Chornobyl Power  Plant, but it reportedly lacked heavy weapons to  

oppose the Russian onslaught and was forced to  surrender. At this point, the elements of the  

80th Air Assault Brigade, border patrol units,  and two groups of Omega Special unit were the  

main Ukrainian forces defending against the  Russian attack on the Western bank of Dnipro.  

Russian units advancing in this direction enjoyed  an immense firepower and manpower advantage,  

so stopping them was unrealistic. Taking that into  account, the main goal of the Ukrainian defenders  

was to delay the Russian forces by destroying  bridges and roads, and harassing their lines. 

While most of the Russian force pushed back the  Ukrainian defenders and advanced, 4-5 BTGs of the  

Russian army served as a vanguard unit, aiming to  reach the Antonov Airport in Hostomel by bypassing  

residential areas and avoiding Ukrainian  forces. The supply lines of these forward  

units were vulnerable to hit-and-run attacks by  Ukrainian mobile units armed with Javelin and NLAW  

anti-tank missiles. According to a Ukrainian  participant of the Battle of Kyiv, Russians  

were careless and moved in parade-like formations  without units covering their advance and flanks.  

As a result, Ukrainians successfully harassed  Russian armored columns, which sometimes had  

to push through narrow roads, and this made  the destruction of front and rear vehicles  

sufficient to stop whole columns. Notable  battles took place near Ivankiv and Dymer,  

as the 72nd brigade, the aforementioned Ukrainian  units, territorial defense battalions, and special  

forces withdrew while delaying the Russian  movement and inflicting damage on its lines.  

But Ukraine was suffering losses too. For  instance, according to Ukrainian sources,  

the Omega group of the National Guard  had to abandon 3 of its vehicles,  

which Russian Spetsnaz groups later used to enter  Kyiv. These vehicles still had Ukrainian insignia,  

allowing Russian Spetsnaz to enter the  capital in the first chaotic days of the war. 

The number of Russian saboteurs in Kyiv is  unclear, but Russian Spetsnaz operatives,  

Wagner mercenaries, and GRU operatives were  in Kyiv to reportedly kill President Zelensky,  

wreak havoc in the capital and create an illusion  of a significant Russian presence in the city.  

Most of these saboteurs entered Kyiv in the early  days of the conflict, including through Hostomel,  

which we will talk about a bit later. At the same  time, it is claimed that a portion of the Russian  

agents entered the capital before the beginning  of the war. One should remember that in February,  

the Ukrainian defeat was considered a matter of  days. The Ukrainian government was expected to  

crumble under pressure, but Zelensky’s defiance  and refusal to leave the capital was a critical  

moment that helped mobilize the Ukrainians  to fight. In the early days of the invasion,  

citizens were armed with guns and were encouraged  to await Russian invaders with Molotov cocktails.  

Russian saboteurs failed in their mission  in Kyiv. There were separate incidents of  

fighting inside Kyiv, most notably near the  Beresteiska metro station, but the situation  

inside the city never became too threatening.  Soon the activity of Russian saboteurs died down. 

While the Russian columns were advancing from  Belarus, Russia simultaneously deployed airborne  

troops to the Antonov Airport in Hostomel, some 20  kilometers northwest of the capital. The Russian  

command assessed the earlier massive campaign  of strikes on Ukrainian targets as sufficient  

to destroy most of its air defense capabilities.  It was confident it could deploy 200-300 elite  

paratroopers from the 11th Guards Assault Brigade  deep behind Ukrainian lines with the help of Mi-8  

Hip assault transport aircraft protected  by 34 Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters.  

This operation aimed to secure the Antonov Airport  and use it as a foothold for deploying troops,  

military equipment, and supplies for the upcoming  attack on Kyiv. The Antonov Airport was defended  

by the 4th Rapid Response Brigade of the Ukrainian  National Guard, which had around 300 soldiers,  

at this time primarily conscripts, as some of  the most experienced soldiers were relocated to  

Luhansk oblast since Ukraine expected the most  significant Russian attack from there. The 4th  

Rapid Response Brigade also reportedly possessed  several T-64BV tanks, an artillery battery,  

surveillance drones, portable surface-to-air  systems, and ZU-32-2 anti-aircraft weapons.  

Inexperienced Ukrainian defenders were reportedly  overwhelmed and shocked at the beginning of the  

battle. Still, the mood changed as soon as  one of the Russian helicopters was shot down  

by Igla man-portable surface-to-air missile.  Overall, Ukrainians managed to down 3 Russian  

helicopters. Ukrainians fought hard to defend the  airport, but the unit commander, Colonel Vitaliy  

Rudenko, was forced to order a retreat since they  ran out of ammo. As soon as the 4th Rapid Response  

Brigade withdrew, Ukrainian artillery started  pounding the airport’s landing strip to make  

it unusable for deploying additional troops and  vehicles by Russia. Ukrainian Su-24 aircraft also  

joined the attack on the Antonov airport. This  was followed by the attack of the 72nd Mechanized  

Brigade, the 4th Rapid Response Brigade, and  Ukrainian special forces to retake the airport.  

Ukrainian forces sieged the airport, where the  Russian VDV was under heavy pressure from the  

Ukrainian artillery and air force. By the evening  of February 24, the 4th Rapid Response Brigade  

reported its victory in Hostomel, as the Russian  11th Guards Assault Brigade had to withdraw to  

the surrounding woods. Even though the Russian  ground forces in and around the Hostomel airport  

did not get reinforcements to hold the area,  the Russian air forces actively supported them. 

Battles in Ivankiv, Dymer, and other areas  Northwest of Kyiv were raging simultaneously,  

but the group of 4-5 BTGs spearheading the  Russian advance by bypassing the Ukrainian units  

and strongholds reached Hostomel on the morning of  February 26. Ukrainians had to withdraw and create  

the next line of defense along the Irpin River,  as their special forces detonated the nearest  

bridge delaying the advance of the Russian units.  Even though Russians managed to secure the Antonov  

airport, its runway was severely damaged,  making it for further Russian deployment,  

according to the Ukrainian command. There are conflicting reports about the  

Russian attempt to capture another  airfield in the vicinity of Kyiv.  

According to Ukrainian officials, on February  26, Russia sent two IL-76 transport airplanes  

to land Russian airborne troops at the Vasylkiv  airport, which Ukrainians shot down. So far,  

no conclusive evidence of two shot planes has been  presented. But Russians also attempted a ground  

assault on the airport, most likely conducted  by the forward units coming from the north. The  

mayor of Vasylkiv also claimed that some of the  Russian soldiers who fought to capture the airport  

were sleeper agents who moved to the Kyiv oblast  with their families a few months before the war.  

There is no public evidence to corroborate that  claim, but a battle in Vasylkiv indeed took place.  

An interviewed Ukrainian soldier claimed  that the Russian unit fighting in Vasylkiv  

was the Alpha group of the Russian Spetsnaz. On  February 26, Ukrainians repelled their attack. 

The next targets of Russian forward units  were the towns of Hostomel, Bucha, and Irpin.  

Russians quickly overwhelmed the Ukrainian defense  in Ivankiv and Dymer by the end of February.  

That notorious 40-mile-long armored Russian  column was advancing towards Kyiv to join  

the siege of Ukrainian forces along the  Irpin River. As we mentioned earlier,  

the commander of Kyiv’s defense, Colonel General  Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated in an interview that  

there were two circles of defense of the capital.  One of them was the outer circle, in villages  

and settlements of the Kyiv Oblast, while the  inner circle was inside the city limits of Kyiv.  

This outer circle was Hostomel, Bucha, Irpin, and  Moshchun, and the Ukrainian defenders were ordered  

to stand their ground to prevent the Russian  advance into the capital. Losing this battle  

would mean urban combat in Kyiv. Knowing how  the Russian army conducts urban warfare, namely  

massing artillery around the city and razing it  to the ground, the Ukrainian command understood  

that they would have to keep Russians to the  perimeter to save Kyiv from destruction. As the  

destruction of numerous Ukrainian cities in the  east showed, they were right in that assessment. 

In late February, battles for Hostomel, Bucha,  and Irpin started almost simultaneously as Russian  

ground forces entered all three towns looking  to penetrate Ukrainian defenses and enter the  

capital. It is still difficult to determine  the exact units fighting on both sides in  

these battles. Still, reports indicated that from  the Russian side these were the 31st Guards Air  

Assault Brigade, 76th Guards Air Assault Division,  56th Guards Air Assault Regiment, 64th Motor Rifle  

Brigade, Chechen National Guard regiment  loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov and special forces.  

At the same time, the Ukrainian defense  consisted of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade,  

the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade, several  elements of the Ukrainian Special Forces and the  

National Guard, as well as the newly-created  International Brigade, which, contrary to the  

rumors, was not in the 10s of thousands but merely  in hundreds. On February 27, while Russian units  

were still fighting to capture Hostomel, several  broke through in the direction of Bucha and Irpin.  

In Irpin, the battle started outside the Giraffe  shopping mall as a formidable armored column  

entered the town. But this column, reportedly  belonging to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division,  

advanced through the road leading to Irpin,  and the Ukrainian defenders were prepared. 

Russians were still confident that Ukrainians  would crumble when they saw an overwhelming  

armored force and moved in a parade-like  formation. As soon as the Russian armored column  

approached, Ukrainian paratroopers destroyed  several Russian vehicles with RPGs, which quickly  

caused chaos in the Russian ranks. It is reported  that Ukrainian defenders were learning how to use  

the western-supplied Javelins and NLAWs on  Youtube on the fly and used these anti-tank  

weapons to destroy the first and last vehicles  in the columns. This tactic, successfully used  

by Chechen resistance in the Chechen wars of the  1990s, was ideally suited for narrow roads in the  

suburbs of Kyiv, as destroying the first and the  last vehicle in the column forced other vehicles  

to choose between staying on the road or moving to  muddy terrain, and either option could be deadly.  

Surviving vehicles entered the shopping mall and  hid behind other buildings to avoid destruction.  

With Ukrainian communications down,  Ukrainian commanders passed instructions  

and targets for artillery fire via runners  and WhatsApp. A Russian unit tried to flank  

the Ukrainians through a deserted brick  factory, but their attempt was repelled.  

After two hours, the Russians had to withdraw.  But the initial setback did not stop the Russians  

from continuing their attempts to take Irpin. On February 27, Ukrainian defenders blew up the  

bridge connecting Bucha to Irpin. The invaders  had to use the longer route through the M06  

highway to bring more men and vehicles to Irpin.  Ukrainians were aware of this, and on February 28,  

a Russian armored column suffered heavy losses on  the M06 Highway. The Ukrainian official, Oleksiy  

Arestovich, claimed that Russia lost more than  200 vehicles on the highway, which sounds like an  

exaggeration, but is also an indication of fierce  resistance by Ukrainian forces in this direction.  

By early March, Russians managed to gain  a foothold in Irpin, but they failed to  

capture the town despite all their attempts. This  led to increased Russian airstrikes on Irpin,  

bringing the town to the brink  of a humanitarian catastrophe.  

At one point in mid-March, it was reported  that Russia managed to take half of the town  

under its control, but they never managed  to drive the Ukrainian army out of Irpin. 

We still don’t have a detailed step-by-step  report of battles in Irpin, but there was an  

episode that showed the negligence of the Russian  units. A Russian airborne company parked its  

vehicles at the base of a multi-story building  in Irpin and was visible to Ukrainian defenders.  

Ukrainians threw smoke grenades at the Russian  airborne company, which got confused and ran  

away in panic, leaving all their vehicles  and equipment behind for the Ukrainians. 

Heavy battles took place in Bucha as well.  The 64th Separate Motorized Brigade, the 76th  

Guards Air Assault Division, pro-Kadyrov Chechen  battalions, riot control units known as OMON were  

among the units fighting to drive away the 72nd  Mechanized Brigade, the Territorial Defense units,  

the National Guard units, and the Special forces.  After the initial advance in late February and  

early March amidst significant losses in armored  vehicles, Russia was pushed back to the outskirts  

of Bucha on March 3. But by March 5, Russians  again took most of the town under their control.  

This allowed them to move  troops to Irpin more freely.  

Heavy fighting in the northeast of the Kyiv oblast  led to a catastrophic humanitarian situation,  

which prompted the authorities to  organize the evacuation of up to 20k  

civilians on March 9. On March 12, it was reported  that Russia fully captured Bucha. Despite several  

counter-attacks, it was impossible to drive  Russian troops from the area. For the time being,  

the aim of the Ukrainian forces in this area was  to prevent a Russian advance from Bucha to Irpin. 

After taking the Antonov Airport in Hostomel on  February 26, the Russian aviation and artillery  

continued shelling this town in preparation for  a ground offensive. Despite the initial success  

of the Ukrainian defenders in repelling the  assault of the 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade,  

the highlights of which were the destruction of  dozens of Russian armored vehicles and the killing  

of the deputy commander of the 41st Combined  Arms Army, Major general Andrei Sukhovetsky by  

sniper fire, on March 5, Hostomel was captured  by Russia. The mayor of Hostomel was killed  

two days later while delivering humanitarian  aid to residents. For the next several weeks,  

Ukrainians continued counter-offensive actions  to retake Hostomel. Russians heavily outnumbered  

Ukrainian defenders in this direction, and it  is reported that the deployment of the 80th  

Air Assault Brigade helped the Ukrainians  to stabilize the situation in Kyiv oblast. 

We do not want to diminish the significance of  battles in other towns of the Kyiv oblast. Still,  

perhaps the single most important victory of the  Ukrainian army took place in the town of Moshchun,  

immediately north of the capital. After the  occupation of the Antonov Airport, the elements  

of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade entered Moshchun  in anticipation of a Russian attack from there.  

On February 27, the Russian Spetsnaz  troops were already in Moshchun.  

Still, as the River Irpin separated Hostomel from  Moshchun and the bridge between these towns had  

been blown up, it was difficult for the Russian  army to deploy a formidable force in this area.  

Ukraine had a natural advantage in this  direction and constantly targeted pontoon  

bridges via artillery and airstrikes to prevent  the Russian units from moving to Moshchun.  

For days, Russian deployment to Moshchun was  stopped before, on March 6, a large Russian  

group finally managed to enter the town. Despite  the fierce resistance from the company of the 72nd  

Mechanized Brigade led by captain Roman Kovalenko,  they had to retreat to the edge of the town,  

allowing the Russian army to create a bridgehead  in Moshchun. He regrouped with the Ukrainian  

special forces, territorial defense brigades,  and newly-arrived international volunteers. 

Both sides dug trenches in anticipation of battles  for Moshchun, and Ukrainians had to find a way to  

prevent more Russian reinforcements from coming  there. On March 8, Ukrainian special forces did  

just that by blowing the dam in Dymer at the  mouth of the River Irpin, which significantly  

increased the water flow into the river, made it  broader, and created boggy terrain on the banks.  

This made using existing pontoon bridges  and building new ones very difficult. It  

became nearly impossible to bring additional  manpower and armored vehicles into Moshchun.  

But the situation for the Ukrainian defenders  inside Moshchun was already quite difficult.  

Russians attacked Ukrainian positions with  artillery, drones, helicopters, and airstrikes.  

Ukrainian communications were destroyed,  too, making Ukrainian drones mostly unusable.  

Ukrainian defenders in this direction were  running low on 152-mm artillery shells. 

On March 10-11, the situation became even worse,  as according to an interview with one of the  

Ukrainian defenders, close to 100 Russians somehow  managed to cross Irpin with armored vehicles. They  

reportedly gathered in the forest in the North of  Moshchun unbeknownst to the Ukrainian units. But a  

local farmer spotted a concentration of tanks and  armored vehicles and informed the Ukrainian army  

about it. Ukrainian drones could not spot them.  But once the Ukrainian artillery fired on the  

forest, they saw a secondary explosion, confirming  the placement of vehicles there. Being exposed,  

Russians pressed to attack. They moved South  towards Kyiv, aiming to advance on Horenka and  

then Pushcha-Vodytsa. The success of this movement  would have meant the invasion of the capital from  

the north. The National Guard units were the first  to engage with the advancing Russian soldiers.  

Then the company of the 72nd brigade joined the  fight. Russians lacked night-vision equipment,  

while Ukrainians did not have armored vehicles.  But equipped with NLAWs, they managed to destroy  

several IFVs. Ukrainian artillery was active too.  After losing 20-30 men, the remaining Russian  

troops fled toward the river. But Moshchun was  still in danger. According to General Syrsky,  

Moshchun was on the brink of a fall as Russians  managed to deploy their airborne troops to the  

settlement. Ukraine strengthened its defenses  with another battalion from the 72nd Mechanized  

Brigade, but this brigade suffered heavy losses  as Russian artillery and airstrikes continued.  

Russia reportedly had a 20:1 artillery  advantage in the Kyiv oblast. 

At one point, on March 21, the commander of the  72nd Mechanized Brigade, Oleksandr Vdovychenko,  

requested the Commander-in-Chief General Zaluzhny  to withdraw from Moshchun. Zaluzhny reportedly  

ordered Vdovychenko to fight no matter what since  the fall of Moshchun would mean losing Kyiv and  

possibly the war. The 72nd Brigade and other  defenders of Kyiv did precisely that. We don’t  

have details of how the rest of the battle of  Moshchun unfolded, but we know that the Ukrainians  

continued resisting and bleeding Russians out  with Stingers, TB-2 drones, NLAWs, and Javelins.  

In Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, and Moshchun, Ukrainian  mobile units actively employed hit-and-run tactics  

to destroy Russian vehicles. The deployment  of the 80th Air Assault Brigade helped offset  

the manpower advantage of the Russian army. It was looking increasingly unlikely that  

Russians would manage to break through to  Kyiv, as they could not even take Irpin and  

Moshchun under complete control more than a month  after the start of the invasion. Ukrainian units  

started counter-attacking movements in Irpin and  Bucha. Almost simultaneously, the Russian command  

informed about their intended de-escalation  in Kyiv Oblast as a “gesture of goodwill.”  

In late March-early April, Russians started to  retreat from Kyiv Oblast, leaving the wake of  

destruction and death behind it. This is when  the world found out about the Bucha massacre. 

Another critical battlefield of the Battle  of Kyiv was Makariv, a town west of Kyiv.  

It is on the E40 highway, which was reportedly  crucial for transporting weapons and vehicles  

to the defenders of Kyiv from the West. In late  February, the 37th Separate Guards Motor Rifle  

Brigade entered Makariv and engaged in battle  with the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the  

95th Air Assault Brigade. Heavy fighting continued  for several days before, in early March, Russians  

were pushed away from the bridge in Makariv  towards the area known as the Makariv Dachas.  

March was tense in Makariv, as Ukrainians  harassed Russian columns with hit-and-run  

tactics while Russians constantly shelled the  town. Towards the end of the month, Russians  

launched another attack with armored vehicles  and put immense pressure on Ukrainian units. It  

is reported that Russians were repelled only after  the arrival of the special forces unit of Ukraine.  

On March 29, it was the Ukrainian  turn to attack Russian positions,  

but it did not bring any positive results for  the Ukrainians. Nevertheless, 2-3 days later,  

Russians withdrew from Makariv, just like  from other occupied areas of the Kyiv oblast. 

As we noted earlier in this video, Russia advanced  from two other axes toward Kyiv. From Chernihiv  

oblast and Sumy oblast. Since our main focus in  this video is Kyiv, we do not intend to describe  

all of the battles and processes that took place  in the Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts as it is the  

topic of our future video. But let’s briefly  remind you about what happened in the Chernihiv  

and Sumy oblasts to give context. On February 24,  the elements of the 41st CAA, including the 90th  

Tank Brigade and the 55 Motor Rifle Brigade,  invaded the Chernihiv oblast from Belarus.  

Russians had 10-15k men on this axis. The  Ukrainian 1st Tank Brigade, with some 2k men,  

was tasked with defending the city of Chernihiv  and preventing the Russian advance on Kyiv.  

After initially failing to take the  city of Chernihiv under control,  

Russians decided to bypass and encircle the city  while also continuing their movement towards Kyiv. 

A similar scenario developed in the Sumy  oblast. 10-15k large Russian forces faced  

fierce resistance from the 56th Motorized Brigade  and the 150th Territorial Defense Battalion.  

Hence, in this direction, they also decided to  bypass the oblast center and continued advancing  

towards Kyiv, being stopped by the Ukrainian  army in Zghurivka. This tactic over-extended  

the Russian supply lines making it vulnerable to  hit-and-run tactics of Ukrainian mobile units.  

In the Chernihiv axis, the key battle took  place in the village of Lukashivka in mid-March.  

1 Russian BTG with around 750 people, 7 tanks, and  19 armored infantry vehicles tried to take this  

town to complete the encirclement of Chernihiv and  cut the last highway connecting the city to Kyiv.  

But they ignored that plains and villages around  Lukashivka were still under Ukrainian control,  

making them vulnerable to Ukrainian artillery.  Russia took heavy losses in this direction. 

Despite its inability to encircle Chernihiv,  Russia still advanced on Kyiv from this direction.  

They went as far as Brovary, Kyiv Oblast.  On March 9, a battalion of the 72nd brigade,  

commanded by Lt.Colonel Roman Darmohrai, prepared  to ambush a Russian armored column from the 6th  

Guards Tank Regiment moving from Zalissya towards  Brovary. Locals and Ukrainian reconnaissance  

drones informed about Russian movements, so the  Ukrainian ambush unit was ready. Ukrainians struck  

the first tank in the Russian column with NLAW  causing confusion in the Russian ranks. Russian  

tanks moved onto the muddy roadside, which made  their movement even more difficult. They became  

easy targets for the Ukrainians. Ukrainian Korsar  missiles and artillery started pounding them.  

When the Russians retreated, they left 17 tanks,  3 other armored vehicles, and dozens of men on the  

battlefield. On March 19, Russia made another  attempt to take Brovary, but as soon as their  

first tank was hit, they retreated. Russian  attempts to take Kyiv from the Chernihiv and  

Sumy oblasts failed, too, as they withdrew from  the occupied areas in late March-early April. 

The Battle of Kyiv ended in a Ukrainian victory.  Being significantly outnumbered and suffering  

from a firepower disadvantage did not prevent  Ukraine from standing its ground and inflicting  

hefty damage on Russians. Ultimately, the Kremlin  understood that its losses were unsustainable and  

that the available manpower and firepower were  insufficient to break through the Ukrainian  

defenses of the capital. The fighters grew more  confident and gained valuable experience as they  

kept holding the Russians back. Evidently, Russia  intended to conduct a short victorious war based  

on the dubious conviction that Ukrainians  would welcome Russians as liberators.  

The Ukrainian military and the government  would crumble in the face of the assumed second  

strongest army in the world. Russian logistics  throughout the battle of Kyiv was in shambles,  

which is proved by scores of images of  Russian tanks out of fuel in the Kyiv oblast.  

Russia was unprepared for a long war and did not  make appropriate preparations. Russians severely  

underestimated the Ukrainian army and evidently  thought that this was still the same Ukrainian  

army of 2014. Russians over-extended their supply  lines in the Battle of Kyiv, with a goal in mind  

to advance on the capital no matter what. This  left them vulnerable to Ukrainian mobile units,  

who regularly ambushed Russian armored columns. It  was often enough to destroy the first vehicle in  

the column from RPGs like Javelin and NLAW, which  have the capability to strike from a significant  

distance. The rest was up to Ukrainian artillery,  who targeted confused Russian tanks and other  

armored vehicles. For instance, it is reported  that the infamous Russian 40-mile-long armored  

column saw 19 of its vehicles destroyed  by artillery, before it had to disperse.  

Also, the initial strike on the Ukrainian  military infrastructure did not yield the  

results the Russians hoped for. Too many Ukrainian  aircraft and air-defense systems survived, as they  

were moved out of their bases in anticipation of  an attack. This prevented Russians from securing  

complete air domination. Instead, they saw the  emergence of the myth of the Ghost of Kyiv,  

a collective identity of pilots, who defended  the sky of the capital from intruders.  

Moreover, Stingers caused significant problems  for Russian aircraft, the story carried over from  

the ill-fated Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  Lastly, the Russian army demonstrated an almost  

complete inability to coordinate the  work of different military branches.  

Hence, most of the Russian offensives were  carried out by only one or two BTGs, which allowed  

Ukrainians to adapt and prevent significant  breakthroughs. The Ukrainian defense strategy  

of Kyiv primarily relied on the so-called tactic  of trading space for time - retreating to urban  

settlements and bogging Russians down in extremely  costly and complicated urban warfare, while also  

employing small mobile units, which harassed the  Russian supply lines. Also, we should not overlook  

the morale component of this battle. The Ukrainian  defenders knew precisely what they were fighting  

for. But Russian soldiers expected a different  welcome, and some were shocked when Ukrainians  

met them like fascists. Their morale has been low  throughout the Kyiv battle and the Ukraine war.  

These factors forced Russians to withdraw  from the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy oblasts  

by early April to redeploy in Donbas, where they  hoped that they could turn the tide of the war. 

The Battle of Kyiv is one of the greatest upsets  in military history. Despite expectations of the  

fall of the capital in 96 hours, the Ukrainian  defenders stood tall and wrote their names  

into the pages of history. Kyiv did not fall.  The Ukrainian military and the government did  

not crumble. This victory saved Ukrainian  statehood and set the stage for further  

successes of the Ukrainian army in this war. More videos on the Russian invasion of Ukraine  

are on the way, so make sure you have subscribed  and pressed the bell button. Recently, we have  

started releasing weekly patron and youtube  member exclusive videos. Join the ranks of  

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join our private discord, and much more. Please,  consider liking, commenting, and sharing - it  

helps immensely. This is the Kings and Generals  channel, and we will catch you on the next one.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
invasion /ɪnˈveɪʒən/ B2	noun - an act of invading, especially the entrance of an armed force into a territory to conquer it.
conflict /ˈkɒnflɪkt/ B2	noun - a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.
battle /ˈbætl/ B1	noun - a sustained fight between opposing forces.
defend /dɪˈfend/ B1	verb - to resist an attack made on (someone or something); protect from harm or danger.
attack /əˈtæk/ A2	verb - take aggressive military action against (a place or enemy forces) with weapons or armed force. noun - an aggressive and violent action against a place or person.
military /ˈmɪlɪtəri/ B1	adjective - relating to or characteristic of soldiers or armed forces. noun - the armed forces of a country.
forces /fɔːrsɪz/ A2	noun - a group of people, especially an organized group, doing something
resistance /rɪˈzɪstəns/ B2	noun - the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.
command /kəˈmɑːnd/ B2	noun - an authoritative order. verb - give an authoritative order.
equipment /ɪˈkwɪpmənt/ A2	noun - the necessary items for a particular purpose.
army /ˈɑːrmi/ A1	noun - an organized military force equipped for fighting on land.
capital /ˈkæpɪtl/ B1	noun - the most important city or town of a country or region, usually its seat of government and administrative center.
forces /fɔːrs/ A2	noun - strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement.
retreat /rɪˈtriːt/ B2	verb - withdraw from enemy forces as a result of their superior power or after a defeat.
damage /ˈdæmɪdʒ/ A2	noun - physical harm that impairs the value, usefulness, or normal function of something. verb - inflict physical harm on (something) so as to impair its value, usefulness, or normal function.