Northern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 24th of February 2022, the northern front of Russia's invasion of Ukraine opened, as forces crossed in from Russia and Belarus. Three days into the campaign, the state news agency RIA Novosti published a premature victory announcement by accident. The piece, called 'Russia's Coming and the New World,' declared that Ukraine had returned to Russia and the war was over. Documents found inside captured Russian tanks described a 'special military operation' set to conclude in ten days. Parade uniforms had been packed alongside the soldiers' equipment, suggesting someone had planned a victory march through Kyiv. Zelenskyy said he had received an ultimatum to hand power to Viktor Medvedchuk. He refused. Whether the planners had any realistic basis for that confidence would take five weeks of fighting across four oblasts to answer.

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• 2. The Airborne Gamble

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  At 8:00 in the morning on the invasion's first day, between 20 and 34 Russian military helicopters flew south from the Belarus border toward Hostomel. The formation consisted of Mil Mi-8 transports escorted by Ka-52 attack gunships. Aboard were roughly 300 VDV airborne troops, reportedly from the 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade or the 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade. Their target was Antonov Airport, a cargo airfield northwest of Kyiv. If secured, the site would become an airbridge for bringing armored equipment and reinforcements into the capital's outskirts.

  Ukrainian defenders armed with small arms and man-portable air defense missiles met the formation on its approach. Between one and three helicopters were shot down. The Ukrainians guarding the airport were outgunned, however, and they withdrew. The airport fell on the 25th of February.

  Russian commanders then arranged for 18 Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft to land with reinforcements. Local militias and troops from the 3rd Special Purpose Regiment attacked the airport before the planes could arrive. The Ukrainian 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade launched a counterattack that forced the transport fleet to abort and return to Russia.

  In the fighting at the airport, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world's largest operational aircraft at the time, was destroyed inside its storage hangar. Russian authorities claimed nearly 200 Ukrainians died in the battle. Western and Ukrainian sources placed the Russian paratrooper death toll at approximately 300.

  Fighting around Hostomel continued for weeks. On the 26th of February, Ukrainian strikes near the airport reportedly killed Magomed Tushayev, the commander of Russia's 141st Motorized Regiment. His unit had reportedly been assigned to assassinate Zelenskyy. Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Major Valeriy Chybineyev was killed at Hostomel on the 3rd of March. United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin later confirmed that Russian mechanized units had come within 20 miles of Kyiv on the first day.

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• 3. The Long Convoy

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  A column of 70,000 soldiers and 7,000 vehicles crossed from Belarus into northern Ukraine on the first day of the invasion, heading south toward Kyiv. Russian forces swept through the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, capturing the Nuclear Power Plant and the ghost city of Pripyat. Russian vehicles broke through the border checkpoint at Vilcha by noon.

  Just 30 Ukrainian special operations soldiers reportedly managed to halt the entire Belarusian axis of the advance for a time. They ambushed the convoy, which was guarded by roughly 2,000 troops, destroyed three lead vehicles, and blew the bridges along the route. Ukrainian forces also destroyed the bridge over the Teteriv River at Ivankiv to slow the column. By the 28th of February, satellite imagery showed the convoy stretching 64 km along the roads toward Kyiv, largely stopped.

  The advance was further undermined from inside Belarus itself. Dissident railway workers, hackers, and security forces cut the rail lines that Russian forces depended on for supply. The effort was called the 2022 rail war in Belarus. Three networks organized it: 'Bypol,' the 'Community of Railway Workers,' and the 'Cyber Partisans.'

  Wagner Group mercenaries and Chechen forces reportedly made several attempts to assassinate Zelenskyy. Ukrainian officials said that anti-war members of Russia's Federal Security Service had shared intelligence about those plots, allowing them to be foiled. Inside Kyiv, Russian saboteurs dressed in Ukrainian uniforms attempted to infiltrate Obolon, a suburb just 10 km from the parliament building. Ukrainian forces captured or killed them all. Zelenskyy urged civilians to resist with Molotov cocktails, and guns were distributed to civilian militias.

  At 06:00 on the 24th of February, Russian forces had also crossed into Chernihiv Oblast at Hremiach and Senkivka. A separate column entered Sumy Oblast at 05:00. A siege of Chernihiv was now underway that would isolate the city for weeks.

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• 4. Siege Cities

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  Major General Viktor Nikoliuk, head of Ukraine's Operational Command North, ordered the 1st Tank Brigade to hold Chernihiv. He also sent the 58th Motorized Brigade to Baturyn and Hlukhiv to block the main highway. The 1st Brigade failed to reach its planned defensive line at Ripky and Horodnia in time. It still managed to slow the Russian advance north of the city. On the 10th of March, Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko confirmed Chernihiv was completely encircled. Its 300,000 residents were cut off, with critical infrastructure failing under repeated bombardment.

  A separate Russian advance attacked the city of Sumy directly, just 35 km from the Russian border. The 93rd Mechanized Brigade and territorial defense units repelled those assaults. Russian forces deployed thermobaric weapons at Okhtyrka. On the evening of the 24th of February, BM-27 Uragan missiles struck a school in Okhtyrka, killing a guard and wounding children and a teacher. On the 28th of February, more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed when a thermobaric bomb hit their base in Okhtyrka.

  By the 13th of March, 22,500 civilians in Sumy Oblast had no electricity. Russian shelling destroyed the Lebedyn bakery, an electric substation, and a gas station in a single barrage. Russian forces occupied a poultry farm in Vilshana on the night of the 4th to the 5th of March. They killed around 100,000 poultry and caused approximately one million hryvnias in damage. On the night of the 11th of March, two residents named Vasyl Masliuk and Valeriy Sukhanov were killed in shelling.

  On the 2nd of March, Russian forces gave Konotop's mayor an ultimatum to surrender the city or face bombardment. A local crowd 'overwhelmingly' refused. A compromise was reached: Russian forces would not interfere with the city's government in return for residents not attacking them. By the 11th of March, Governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyi reported that Sumy Oblast had taken 104 Russian soldiers prisoner since the invasion began.

  Yuriy Bova, the mayor of Trostianets, later revealed that Russian forces had planned to capture Lebedyn on the 12th of March. The plan also called for Okhtyrka on the 13th and Sumy on the 14th. Ukrainian resistance prevented all three.

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• 5. The Stalemate

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  By the 11th of March, the convoy northwest of Kyiv had largely dispersed. Units moved under tree cover; some artillery had already left the main column to take up firing positions near Hostomel. The Royal United Services Institute in London assessed Russian advances from the north and east as 'stalled.'

  On the 12th of March, the Security Service of Ukraine said Russian forces had shot at an evacuation column in Peremoha, forcing it back. Seven civilians were killed. On the 13th of March, the UK Ministry of Defence reported that Russian forces were 25 km from Kyiv's center. That same day, American journalist Brent Renaud was killed at a checkpoint in Irpin. Russian forces had fired on a car carrying non-Ukrainian journalists; two others in the vehicle were wounded.

  The following day, Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian news producer and fixer Oleksandra Kuvshynova were killed near the village of Horenka. Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was wounded in the same attack. An adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs attributed the deaths to Russian shelling.

  Russian advances across the Irpin River were hampered partly by flooding. The floods came from Russia's own strike on the Kozarovychi dam, which regulates flow from the Kyiv Reservoir. Ukrainian forces also blew a pontoon bridge on the Irpin near Hostomel. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that long-range precision missiles had destroyed the Vasylkiv Air Base. He also described striking what he called the 'main center of radio and electronic intelligence of Ukrainian forces' in Brovary.

  On the 15th of March, a new military headquarters for the defense of Kyiv was established. Zelenskyy appointed Oleksandr Pavliuk as head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration and Eduard Koskalov as the new Commander of the Joint Forces. Russian forces held Bucha and half of Irpin as of the 14th of March. Within two weeks, both would be back in Ukrainian hands.

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• 6. Counteroffensive and Withdrawal

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  On the 16th of March, Ukraine's government announced that its forces had begun a counteroffensive to push Russian forces back from Kyiv. By the 22nd of March, Ukrainian forces had retaken Makariv. The village of Moshchun fell the following day, and the settlement of Lukianivka fell on the 24th. Three Russian tanks and nine infantry fighting vehicles were reported destroyed at Lukianivka.

  On the 23rd of March, Colonel Yuri Medvedev was reportedly rammed by one of his own soldiers near Makariv. Medvedev commanded the 37th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. The soldier allegedly drove a vehicle into the colonel, breaking both his legs. The brigade had reportedly lost close to 50% of its soldiers in the fighting near Makariv. The Guardian reported that while the ramming most likely occurred, little public evidence confirmed whether Medvedev had died.

  On the 26th of March, Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade retook Trostianets following days of artillery and drone strikes. Associated Press reporters on the ground said it was 'not clear' where the Russian forces had gone. The recapture was expected to open supply routes to Sumy. On the 28th of March, Ukrainian forces reportedly retook Irpin. Its mayor said the city would serve as a staging ground for recapturing Bucha, Hostomel, and Vorzel.

  On the 29th of March, Russian Deputy Minister of Defence Alexander Fomin announced a withdrawal from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas. Bucha was retaken on the 31st of March, according to its mayor Anatolii Fedoruk. That same day, Ukrainian forces broke the encirclement of Chernihiv by recapturing a main road connecting the city to Kyiv. Ukrainian forces took Hostomel and Borodianka by the 1st of April. They also confirmed that Russian forces had left the Chernobyl area on that date.

  On the 2nd of April, Ukrainian forces retook all of Kyiv Oblast, including Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel, and Brovary. The Zhytomyr Oblast was declared liberated on the 4th of April. By the 8th of April, Governor Zhyvytskyi confirmed that Russian troops had left Sumy Oblast entirely. Rigged explosives and abandoned ammunition made much of the territory unsafe.

  On the 6th of April 2022, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assessed the Russian withdrawal. He said it should be read as a redeployment toward eastern Ukraine and Mariupol, not a general retreat. Ukraine said it had uncovered evidence of war crimes in Bucha.

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• 7. What Russia Left Behind

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  Ukrainian authorities reported that more than 300 civilian inhabitants of Bucha had been summarily executed, in what became known as the Bucha massacre. In total, 458 civilian deaths were recorded in Bucha. An additional 1,300 deaths were documented across Russian-occupied areas of Kyiv Oblast.

  Zelenskyy warned of 'a potentially catastrophic situation for civilians' due to mines left around homes, abandoned equipment, and the bodies of those killed. Ukrainian journalist Maks Levin was found dead near the village of Huta-Mezhyhirska on the 1st of April, after going missing for more than two weeks. Ukraine's prosecutor's office concluded he had been killed by two gunshot wounds from Russian forces.

  The Institute for the Study of War assessed that withdrawn Russian units would remain combat ineffective for a protracted period. On the 28th of April 2022, a Russian missile struck Kyiv. The strike occurred during the visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who was meeting with Zelenskyy to discuss survivors at the siege of Mariupol.

  On the 14th of June 2024, Putin publicly addressed the campaign. He stated that Russian troops had been near Kyiv in March 2022, but characterized their mission as 'a coercive operation to establish peace.' He said there had been no political decision to storm the city. A Radio Liberty investigation published on the 10th of June 2025 identified 898 Russian personnel treated in hospitals during the Kyiv offensive. The group claimed some of those individuals had been complicit in war crimes committed in the region.

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