1 of 3 A Ukrainian civilian points to the location in Kiev where the Russians destroyed his home — Photo: BBC / CLAIRE JUDE PRESS A Ukrainian civilian points to the location in Kiev where the Russians destroyed his home — Photo: BBC / CLAIRE JUDE PRESS
Three days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a massive 15.5 km convoy of armored vehicles was spotted by satellite. The same morning, in Bucha, north of Kiev, Volodymyr Scherbynyn, 67, was standing in front of the supermarket near his home when more than 100 Russian military vehicles arrived in the city.
- Share on WhatsApp
- Share on Telegram
Both Volodymyr and the satellite witnessed President Vladimir Putin’s plan to seize the capital of Ukraine and overthrow the government. A decapitation attack in military jargon.
48 hours later, on February 29, 2022, the convoy had grown to 56 km in length. But instead of clinching a quick victory, he was stalled for weeks. And then gone in the middle of the night.
What happened? And why could such a large force not reach Kiev?
A BBC team spoke to dozens of witnesses; including military, national and international intelligence, civilians, veterans and homeland defenders anyone who had contact with the convoy. He was also given access to Russian maps and documents that reveal the convoy’s plan and why it failed so spectacularly.
This story begins on the UkraineBelarus border in the north.
23yearold Vladyslav of Ukraine’s 80th Air Assault Brigade stepped outside to smoke his first cigarette of the day and saw a burst of bright lights in the night sky.
“I remember lights coming on all over the forest. At first I thought they were car headlights. But then I realized it was Grads [mísseis autopropulsados]. They shot us.”
Deep in the forest of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Vladyslav’s unit was camped on patrol when the first Russian vehicles crossed Ukraine.
“The whole earth trembled. Have you ever been in a tank? There is no other sound like this. It’s powerful stuff.”
As planned in the event of an attack, Vladyslav and the rest of the 80th Brigade blew up the bridge connecting Chernobyl to the nearest large city, Ivankiv.
The Russians would be forced to waste time building a pontoon bridge, which would give Vladyslav and his unit time to retreat to Kiev.
“At first I was surprised: why didn’t we keep them in Chernobyl? But we needed to learn about our enemy. So that’s what we did.”
The Ukrainians could not open fire so close to the Belarusian border. They ran the risk of triggering another conflict. His priority was to first understand Russia’s battle plan before sending his troops into the line of fire.
Putin’s plan
Contrary to many press reports at the time, the 56 km column actually consisted of ten separate Russian tactical battalion units, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.
A Russian document seen by the BBC shows a timeline for the attack. Having crossed Ukraine at 4:00 a.m. on February 24, the 1st Battalion was to advance directly to Kiev, arriving at 14:55.
The attack depended on two things stealth and speed.
According to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Russian soldiers could outnumber Ukrainian forces in northern Kiev by 12 to 1 if they kept secret plans to attack the capital.
However, Putin’s secrecy came at a price. His plan to deceive the enemy was so successful that even most of his commanders received their orders only 24 hours before the invasion.
- Putin announces the suspension of the nuclear deal between Russia and the United States
On a tactical level, that made them vulnerable. They lacked food, fuel, and maps. They had no proper means of communication. They were low on ammo. They themselves were poorly prepared for the winter.
Putin announces the suspension of the deal between Russia and the US that limits the two countries’ nuclear arsenals
Equipped with the wrong tires and surrounded by snow, the Russians found themselves in a mud bath. Civilians near Ivankiv say Russian soldiers have asked Ukrainian farmers to help them pull their tanks out of the mud.
Russian vehicles had to use paved roads to avoid the soft ground, forcing thousands into a single column.
But with limited interbattalion communications, they almost immediately began to converge in a traffic jam.
As one military expert put it, “One never travels into enemy territory in a long convoy. Never.”
Based on testimonies and information from the Ukrainian military, we were able to map the area covered by the convoy between February 24 and the end of March. Unable to travel across the country, the convoy got stuck on the main roads north of Kiev.
By the time the column grew to 35 miles, it included 1,000 tanks, 2,400 mechanized infantry vehicles, and 10,000 soldiers, as well as dozens of supply trucks loaded with food, fuel, oil, and ammunition.
2 of 3 Russian train routes — Photo: Arte/BBC Russian train routes — Photo: Arte/BBC
resistance front
Paralyzed north of Kiev and without food or fuel, the Russians also underestimated their opponents.
For three days Volodymyr Sherbynyn and his comrades, most of them retired, prepared for the convoy’s arrival in their hometown of Bucha.
Armed only with a machine gun, 12 locals knocked down all street signs, set up checkpoints and prepared hundreds of Molotov cocktails.
Until finally, on Sunday morning, Russian tanks invaded the city.
For almost 30 minutes, Volodymr and his base unit attacked the tanks with what little they had.
“We set fire to two of the vehicles and slowed down the entire convoy,” says Volodymyr.
But then came the revenge.
“When they saw us throwing bottles, they opened fire,” said 30yearold Maksym Shkoropar. “I was a bartender. I had no military training.”
By the end of that half hour, every member of Volodymyr’s group had been shot and taken to the hospital.
But even on the station, Volodymr continued to fight. He collected and verified information from civilians in the Kiev area and passed it on to the Ukrainian authorities.
The recipient of this information was the only 23yearold local deputy governor of Irpin, Roman Pohorilyl.
“We haven’t slept for three days. My colleague and I were on the direct line from the council office.
Answering calls about the convoy as well as saboteurs people who drew marks on the ground for the convoy to follow.”
Roman is a consultant by day and an expert on open source intelligence by night. As cofounder of the highly respected website DeepState, he collects, locates and republishes information and social media reports on his website.
“On the way to Kiev, the Russians posted videos on social media. We reposted the videos to reveal their movements. They only bragged, but they got arrested.”
But the most important thing about the attack on Kiev, says Roman, was the feeling of a united Ukraine.
“Everyone did something. I admit it was pretty hectic in those early days. But there were veterans helping civilians. Everyone wanted to defend their city.”
Hundreds of attacks on the convoy took place in cities and towns in the Kiev region. From civilians armed with homemade weapons to infantry and mechanized artillery.
outdated tactic
In stark contrast to the Ukrainians, the Russian armed forces revealed their inability to make dynamic decisions.
“All the Russians carried big metal boxes with ‘Secret’ written on them,” said Vladyslav of the 80th brigade. “We caught one of them during an ambush. We found their maps with their entire route. After that, we learned their entire strategy.”
Putin’s secrecy meant Russian commanders had no sense of the larger battle plan.
The navigation tools were also outdated. A year after the invasion, the BBC is still finding maps left behind by Russian troops from the 1960s and 1970s, and there are now entire cities that weren’t on those maps. We also found semaphore flags, a very antiquated way of communicating between units.
A successful tactic used by the Ukrainian resistance was to blow up bridges and dams in front of the convoy, forcing the Russians to redirect the attack.
Dependent on old maps and with limited communication with their high command, Russian units often failed to act out of sheer indecision.
Multiple satellite images show Russian vehicles literally driving in circles.
3 of 3 Aerial photo shows long Russian train on the road in Ukraine — Photo: MAXAR/BBC Aerial photo shows long Russian train on the road in Ukraine — Photo: MAXAR/BBC
Profession
Finally, under pressure from Ukrainian air raids and artillery, the Russian convoy was stopped outside the city limits of Kiev. For thousands of civilians living near stagnant troops, the experience was horrific.
“They stole everything everywhere. They emptied the shops,” says Vladyslav. “They also used civilians as human shields.”
What happened in many villages and towns north and west of Kiev is still being investigated by various authorities, including the International Criminal Court, looking for evidence of war crimes.
“While I was at a checkpoint, behind the lines of people, they [forças russas] started shooting at us. Civilians were caught in the middle of a battle. It was terrible,” said Vladyslav.
Finally, after four long weeks, the Russians began to withdraw.
Two of the largest remaining battalions were defeated near Hostomel Airport. Another 370 army trucks, apparently abandoned in the village of Zdvizhivka, were destroyed by artillery.
The Ukrainian military continued to push them, after which the Russians completely withdrew from the Kiev region on March 19.
Despite speculation of a new attack on Kiev, most experts agree that this is unlikely as there has been no largescale deployment of Russian troops on the border with Belarus.
Russia advances further into the eastern industrial heart of the Donbass and attacks in the south towards the Kherson, Melitopl and Zaporizhia regions.
But to the north, still observing from reconnaissance drones near the border, are Ukrainian soldiers.
“I will always remember that night in Chernobyl,” says Vladyslav. “When I went out for a smoke with my friend. And when I finished my cigarette, the war started.”
“My friend and I have a dream that we have a shift like that day and while we smoke another cigarette we hear that the war is over. And that we won.”