When the Russians Picked the Wrong Town to Invade

VASYLKIV, Ukraine — The accounts of resistance within the small garrison city of Vasylkiv have already taken on the sheen of legend. There are experiences of Russian transport planes shot down, paratroopers hunted within the woods and even an unknown Ukrainian pilot nicknamed the Ghost of Kyiv defending the skies.

Hyperboles apart, the individuals of this quiet provincial city of tree-lined streets and low-rise buildings courting again to the Russian empire managed to battle off Russian troops within the crucial opening days of the struggle, stopping Russian forces from capturing strategic bases that might have allowed the nation’s capital, Kyiv, to be encircled.

Vasylkiv — dwelling to an aviation college that has educated generations of pilots, a counterterrorism process drive and an air protection command heart that protects the capital and central Ukraine — grew to become one of many first targets of a Russian assault within the first hours and days of the struggle. Cruise missiles slammed into the air base, after which Russian airborne forces attacked in a sequence of floor assaults.

They didn’t prevail. Accounts from residents, authorities officers, armed forces personnel and civilians who’ve enlisted territorial protection items described how Ukraine rebuffed the Russian assault and helped forestall Russia’s wider goals to grab management of the nation.

An air base on the sting of Vasylkiv was among the many first targets hit at 5 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 24, within the opening salvos of the struggle. The strikes broken buildings, gear and air protection programs.

Russian airborne troops had been dropped into close by villages and commenced an assault, native officers and officers stated. The Russian troopers attacked throughout an air raid, utilizing it to their benefit as Ukrainian troops took cowl in bomb shelters.

“After the airstrikes, they tried to check the perimeter,” stated one air drive officer concerned in combating in considered one of a number of army installations within the space, talking provided that he solely be recognized by his rank — a significant — and his army code identify, KR@M. “They tried to sneak inside they usually managed.”

For safety causes, the officer didn’t specify precisely the place the battles passed off, besides to say the Kyiv area.

The Russian attackers had probably been dropped by helicopter in villages away from their goal and superior on foot, he and others officers stated. They attacked two separate army targets, and for 4 days Ukrainian forces fended off a number of assaults. At one level, he stated, the Russians succeeded in coming into one compound however retreated once more after taking casualties.

Officers stated that among the Russian attackers had been already current within the city, and had been residing as sleeper cells for months. The town mayor, Natalia Balasynovych, stated some had even purchased residences in a brand new residential advanced and moved in with their households for canopy.

The Ukrainian army claimed on the time that considered one of its fighter jets had shot down a Russian transport plane that very same evening. There have been additionally media experiences that two army cargo planes headed for Vasylkiv had been intercepted and downed by Ukrainian air defenses.

However the wreckage of any downed planes has proved elusive. Members of the territorial protection items, a lot of them ex-military volunteers in addition to native hunters, stated they’ve combed the woods and surrounding countryside however haven’t discovered wreckage of any planes.

However Ukraine’s skies had been filled with Russian helicopters within the first nights of the struggle, stated Yuriy Ignat, public relations officer on the Ukrainian Air Power Command. “We don’t assume they got here in large planes, however there have been many saboteur teams in lots of locations.”

By the fourth evening of the struggle, the Russian attackers had regrouped and had been higher organized, stated the air drive officer, KR@M, a member of the fast response unit that was concerned within the battle.

He stated the Russians had been geared up with assault rifles, silencers and evening imaginative and prescient goggles, enabling to them to assault in the dead of night.

“At 4 a.m., when the combating began our guard was shot silently, within the head, in full darkness,” he stated.

A fierce firefight broke out because the Russians entered the compound, he stated. The Ukrainians swiftly misplaced six males killed, with two wounded. However with correct fireplace and hurling grenades, he stated they managed to kill 5 of the attackers and wound a sixth, forcing the remaining Russians to retreat.

“We’re fortunate they didn’t know how you can throw grenades correctly,” KR@M stated of the Russians. “If that they had managed to throw grenades, it could be very unhappy,” suggesting the Ukrainians might have been overrun.

The Russians appeared to have had again up, as a result of there have been indicators they dragged their useless and wounded with them. “We noticed the blood stains however discovered no our bodies,” KR@M stated. They even retrieved their shell casings, he stated.

He stated he was the one Ukrainian with a thermal imaging evening imaginative and prescient and was in a position to shoot three of the attackers. He mourned his misplaced comrades, who he stated didn’t have the identical benefit. “The toughest factor, as at all times, is to lose your folks,” he stated.

The attackers had left an indication on the asphalt of the territory, suggesting they had been members of Alpha, Russia’s elite particular forces unit, he stated. He confirmed {a photograph} on his cellphone of a chalked signal on the asphalt with the symbols “A” for Alpha and a “Z,” the letter utilized by the principle Russian battle group combating in Ukraine. The signal was two yards extensive, he stated, presumably meant to be seen from the air.

After that battle on Feb. 26, the Ukrainians noticed scouts conducting reconnaissance across the perimeter of their bases, however the Russians didn’t mount any additional assaults. Then, a few week in the past, they disappeared altogether.

Contained in the bases, the hassle was underway to restore and reactivate a few of Vasylkiv’s air defenses broken the primary evening.

The airstrikes had been “very painful however not lethal,” stated Konstantin, an air protection serviceman who spoke provided that solely his first identify be revealed, with no point out of his rank.

Buildings and gear had been broken, however they managed to salvage a working system inside days, Konstantin stated. “If we’ve two destroyed automobiles, we will construct one,” he stated.

However, Ukraine’s air protection gear dated from the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, and was far much less refined than the programs being utilized by the Russians, he stated. A single missile would present on the Ukrainian radar, however after they shot it down, he stated, they discovered a second missile was behind it that will hit the goal.

Vasylkiv was been focused repeatedly in missile and rocket assaults within the weeks since, as has the capital, Kyiv, and Ukrainian defenses have struggled to intercept all of them, he stated.

“It was like a heavy waves of strikes,” Konstantin stated. “Our defenses couldn’t hit all of them down on the identical time.”

In a protracted thread of messages on its Twitter account, the Ukrainian Air Power command appealed for allies to produce Ukraine with Western planes and air protection programs or not less than for former Warsaw Pact international locations to provide previous Soviet programs to Ukraine.

“Thus far, our allies haven’t answered our name for air protection help (fighter jets and SAM),” it stated. “We’ve got not acquired the instruments we have to defend our sky and obtain victory.”

“You will need to say that with trendy gear we might cease all of the airstrikes,” Konstantin stated.