Four years ago today, on February 24, 2022, Russian forces launched the invasion of Ukraine that had been anticipated for weeks. The forty-eight months of grinding, attritional war that has occurred since the invasion was not in Russia’s design. The Kremlin sought a rapid victory in the form of an assault on Kyiv that would have served as a coup de main, after which the entire country’s defenses would have crumbled and Russia would have been able to declare victory.
Russian forces sought to accomplish this with an air assault to seize Hostomel Airport, just outside Kyiv, combined with a ground attack by forces approaching the capital from the Belarusian border to the north of the city. To defend against these moves, Ukraine had extremely limited military resources. And yet, the Ukrainian defenders managed to thwart both Russia’s designs on the airport and the ground attack.
