Authors' introduction

This special edition of The British Army Review tells the story of how Ukrainian forces stopped the Russian military from crossing the Irpin River and prevented the enemy from reaching the outskirts of northwest Kyiv in February and March 2022. Based on original oral interviews and field research, the narrative focuses on the defence staged by the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion and supporting units of the Ukrainian Army’s 72nd Mechanised Brigade. It details the fighting that took place at Antonov Airport on the 24th February and the subsequent battle along the Irpin River at Horenka, Moshchun and Huta Mezhyhirs’ka. We have called it the Battle of Irpin River because the waterway became a natural front line – an operational obstacle that Russian forces had to overcome and, when the Ukrainian military flooded the river, a barrier that became uncrossable. The battle raged until the end of March 2022 and ended in a Russian retreat.

With a grant from the Madison Policy Forum, the research team conducted dozens of oral interviews with Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, and walked as much of the battlefields as they could in 2022 and 2023. The field research in Ukraine is a demonstration of our belief in the importance of listening to the first-hand accounts of those involved in combat and the value of walking the battlefields. Oral interviews place people where they belong – at the centre of the story. Field research adds essential context which helps understand the impact of geography, the tactical effects of terrain and the geometry of forces as they faced each other on the battlefield.

Crucially, listening to people’s stories and walking the battlefields to retrace events where they happened uncovers details and stories which might otherwise be occluded or lost. It can increase reader empathy, emphasising the visceral human aspects of combat. The traditional, on-the-ground research approach has direct relevance to the ways in which Western military forces understand and learn from contemporary combat.

The account presented here should be understood and read as a rough first draft of a history; it is necessarily incomplete. We interviewed dozens of people who lived through battles in which thousands participated. Each interviewee offered their individual perspective of what is a much broader story. As much as we have worked to verify each account, in weaving together individual stories to try to create a coherent narrative, there will be errors and omissions. There are many stories still to be told and recorded. We also only interviewed Ukrainians and so there is a missing half to this story.

The historian C.V. Wedgewood wrote: “History is lived forwards but written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider the beginning and we can never wholly recapture what it was to know the beginning only.” You know how this story ends. However, this research is an attempt to recapture what it was to know the beginning only. On the morning of the 24th February 2022, Ukrainians were woken by the sound of explosions and the invasion of their country. They did not know what would happen next. – James Sladden, Ben Connable and Liam Collins