“The enemy understood that it was impossible to cross that bridge [at Stoyanka]. They started to search for other routes.” – A Ukrainian Special Operations Forces soldier1
THE FIRST CROSSING
T
HE 2nd Battalion, 72nd Mechanised Brigade’s leadership had reconnoitred its companies’ sectors on or around the 20th February but had not prepared any defensive positions. In the early hours of the morning of the 24th, just prior to Russia launching its ‘special military operation’, the battalion hastily mustered, issued weapons and ammunition, loaded its heavy vehicles onto trains and then moved by road from its base in Bila Tserkva – 85 kilometres southwest of Kyiv – through the city, to its assembly area in the capital’s west.2
With the nation under siege, progress was slow thanks to the military having to share the highways with those residents seeking refuge from the fighting. “We drove for a very long time because the roads were packed,” explained one soldier. “People fled from Kyiv. We read on the road that Russian missiles were striking Ukraine.” 3 Another recalled: “We were going through Irpin and Hostomel. There were terrible traffic jams. But people let us through, they understood that we needed to go forward and take up defence.” 4 The 5th Company arrived at their positions by late morning but their weapons did not. The vehicles carrying personal, platoon and 28
THE BRITISH ARMY REVIEW
company weapons and ammunition had broken down en route.5 Some soldiers had AK47s, officers had only their pistols and some personnel had no arms at all. All, however, had shovels and so began to dig trenches – “the deeper the better”.6 A decision by the battalion commander to switch 5th Company’s focus to the bridge at Chervone – a deviation from the earlier recce – meant the company commander had to quickly assess his surroundings7 and that the first time his 22 soldiers saw their assigned area was when they dismounted from their trucks on the day of the invasion. Two days later, Russian forces made their first attempt to cross the Irpin River using a bridge on the E40 highway that crosses from
Stoyanka into Kyiv – in the southwestern end of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade’s defensive arc – but the advance was successfully thwarted by fire from Ukrainian tanks and Javelin missiles.8 Until that point, the latter weapon system had been something of an unknown quantity to those having to take aim with it out of necessity. In 2017, the United States had approved a military aid package to Ukraine that included 37 Javelin launchers and 210 Javelin anti-tank missiles9, and this consignment was followed on the 18th February 2022 by an additional shipment Interview with soldier 13, August 2022.
1
Interview with soldier 23, August 2022.
2
Ibid.
3
Interview with soldier 13, August 2022.
4
Interview with soldier 13 and soldier 23, August 2022.
5
Interview with soldier 13, August 2022.
6
Ibid.
7
Interview with soldier 18, August 2022.
8
Melinda Haring, “Q&A: Ukraine’s Got Javelins Now. So What?”, Atlantic Council, 30 April 2018, atlanticcouncil. org/blogs/ukrainealert/q-a-ukraine-s-got-javelins-now-sowhat, accessed 10 November 2023.
9
British soldiers fire a Javelin as part of a NATO enhanced Forward Presence training exercise in Estonia UK MOD © Crown copyright 2022
SPRING 2024