During the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, a military engagement took place at

Brovary Brovary (, ; ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city in Kyiv Oblast, northern Ukraine, situated to the east of the capital Kyiv and part of the Kyiv metropolitan area. It serves as the administrative centre of Brovary Raion. Brovary hosts t ...

, an eastern suburb of

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, the capital city of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Russian forces advanced west from southern

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

and were engaged by Ukrainian forces. Russian forces withdrew from the area by 1-2 April 2022.

Battle

Civilians leaving Brovary before the arrival of Russian troops

On the evening of 9 March 2022, a column of Russian armored vehicles advanced into

from the north via Highway M01. The column, consisting of the 6th and 239th Tank Regiments of the 90th Guards Tank Division, moved very slowly and included a number of obsolete vehicles, such as older

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet Union, Soviet main battle tanks that entered production in 1973. The T-72 was a development based on the T-64 using thought and design of the previous Object 167M. About 25,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refu ...

tanks, advancing without infantry support. In addition, the convoy was headed by

self-propelled artillery Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mo ...

such as

TOS-1 TOS-1 Buratino (, Heavy Flamethrower System) is a Soviet 220 mm 30-barrel (original system, Object 634 or TOS-1M) or 24-barrel (Object 634B or TOS-1A Solntsepyok) multiple rocket launcher capable of using thermobaric warheads, mounted on a ...

, which were especially vulnerable targets. On 10 March, at Skybyn village near Brovary, Ukrainian forces saw an opportunity to ambush the Russian troops and attacked. Using artillery and antitank missiles, the Ukrainians disabled several tanks and

armored personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

s. A Ukrainian soldier later stated that the ambushers initially targeted the first and last vehicles in the convoy to trap the rest in the middle. The attack was not entirely successful, as the Ukrainians were unable to cut off the Russians' route of retreat. However, the Russian column suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat. Ukrainian officials claimed that the commander of the 6th Tank Regiment, Colonel Andrei Zakharov, was killed in the skirmish. Some Russian soldiers reportedly fled on foot into the nearby woods and villages. Despite the retreat of the 90th Guards Tank Division, heavy fighting erupted in villages east of the ambush site, where fighting lasted for several days between Russian and Ukrainian troops. Russian survivors of the ambush shot civilians in the villages, suspecting them of aiding the local defenders. On 12 March, Russian strike destroyed a food warehouse in Kvitneve village near Brovary (one of the largest food storage facilities in Europe). 50,000 tons of food were destroyed. This could be an attempt to cut access to food for Kyiv. Russia claimed it had disabled the Ukrainian military's main centre for radio intelligence in Brovary with a high-precision strike. On the same day, the mayor of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko said fighting were taking place nearly 25 kilometers from the city and claimed the Russians had suffered heavy casualties, and was quoted "We are ready for them."

Aftermath

On 29 March, Russia shelled the Brovary area. A warehouse was set ablaze and nearby villages sustained heavy damage.

Russian withdrawal and Ukrainian counterattack

On 30 March, а

Telegram channel Telegram, also known as Telegram Messenger, is a Cloud computing, cloud-based, Cross-platform software, cross-platform, social media and instant messaging (IM) service. It was originally launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 Octo ...

stated that Ukrainian forces had pushed back Russian troops and recaptured the villages of Ploske, Svitylnia, and Hrebel'ky, with ongoing clashes in Nova Basan. On 1 April, the Ukrainian military claimed to have recaptured the villages of Rudnya, Shevchenkove, Bobryk, Stara Basan, Nova Basan, Makiyivka, Pohreby, Bazhanivka, Volodymyrivka, Shnyakivka, Salne, Sofiyivka, and Havrylivka, following the departure of Russian forces. Sapozhko claimed that Russian forces had "almost left" the entire Brovary district, with Ukrainian forces engaging in "mopping up" operations. On 2 April 2022 the whole of

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast (, ), also called Kyivshchyna (, ), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, which is administered as a city with special sta ...

was declared free of Russian troops by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brovary 2022

Kyiv Oblast in the Russian invasion of Ukraine Battles of the Northern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine Brovary March 2022 in Ukraine April 2022 in Ukraine Ambushes in Ukraine Attacks on warehouses Warehouse fires Building bombings in Ukraine Food and drink in Ukraine 2022 building bombings Russian war crimes in Ukraine War crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 fires in Europe Building and structure arson attacks in Ukraine Arson in 2022