Battle of Trostianets

Overview

On 24 February 2022, as part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military crossed the Russia–Ukraine and Belarus–Ukraine borders into northern Ukraine, entering the oblasts (regions) of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Zhytomyr. The Russian operations in northern Ukraine were initially launched as an attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and the seat of the Ukrainian government.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Russian crossing of the Russia–Ukraine and Belarus–Ukraine borders on 24 February 2022 opened the northern front of the full-scale invasion, with forces entering the oblasts of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Zhytomyr. The stated operational objective of the northern thrust was the capture of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital and seat of government. Securing Kyiv would have decapitated Ukrainian state authority and potentially ended organized resistance at the outset of the campaign. The northern advance therefore represented the most strategically consequential axis of the initial invasion, with Russian forces under Aleksandr Chaiko operating against a substantially smaller Ukrainian force.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)