Battle of Hostomel

Battle of Hostomel
	Part of the Kyiv offensive and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
	; Russian casualties and damaged armoured vehicles in the aftermath of the battle on 4 March in Hostomel
Date	25 February – 1 April 2022; (1 month and 1 week)
Location	Hostomel, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine
Result	Ukrainian victory
Belligerents
Russia	Ukraine
Units involved
Russian Armed Forces Russian Ground Forces 41st Combined Arms Army; ; Russian Airborne Forces 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade; ; Russian Air Force; National Guard of Russia 141st Motorized Regiment;	Ukrainian Armed Forces Ukrainian Ground Forces 72nd Mechanized Brigade; ; Georgian Legion; Air Assault Forces 80th Air Assault Brigade; ; Special Operations Forces 3rd Separate Special Purpose Regiment; ; Territorial Defense Forces; National Guard of Ukraine; Security Service of Ukraine Alpha Group (SBU); HUR MOU; Irregular civilian volunteers (militia) Ukrainian guerrillas;

The battle of Hostomel was the first major battle in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fought for control over the town of Hostomel between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. As part of the Kyiv offensive, the Russian forces sought control over Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin in order to encircle and besiege the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv from the west. Due to the intensity of the Kyiv offensive, the Kyiv Oblast State Administration named Hostomel, along with Irpin, Bucha, Highway M06, and Vyshhorod as the most dangerous places in Kyiv Oblast.

The Russian plans had been to quickly advance on and capture Kyiv, which would have disrupted command and control by the Ukrainian government. While the Russians were able to capture the airport, they were unable to use it to establish an airbridge. The fighting in and around Hostomel has been described as a key and decisive moment in the early stages of the invasion. It prevented the Russians from quickly taking control of Ukraine as they had planned. Having failed to achieve their operational objective, Russian forces not only withdrew from Hostomel but from all of Kyiv Oblast at the start of April.

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