The Hidden Battle that Saved Ukraine

It is 8 am on February 24, 2022. Although no one in Ukraine realizes it yet, what is about to unfold in a relatively unassuming part of the country will be arguably the single most important event in Ukrainian history. The stakes could not be higher: the country itself is on the line. This is story of the Battle of Hostomel Airport.

0:00 Introduction
1:43 Prologue
6:12 Mobilization
10:36 Russia's Plan
14:44 The First Shots
16:37 Interlude
17:58 Ukraine's Back Up Plan
20:43 The Counterattack
23:51 Epilogue

From Vasiliy Koba:

From Vitaly V. Kuzmin:

From Igor Dvurekov:

From RIA Novosti:

From Alex Beltyukov:

From OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine:

From Clemens Vasters:

From Ralf Manteufel:

From Dmitriy Pichugin:

[Gametheory]

Correction at 5:00 It was Columbia that broke apart, not Discovery.

[wc]

I can’t imagine how embarrassing it must’ve have been for Putin to have the US basically reading out all his war plans to Ukraine

[SgtZaqq]

As a Ukrainian from Kyiv, this battle is definitely not "hidden" for me. Hostomel was constantly talked about in the first days of the invasion. An excellent video nonetheless.

[newug]

All in all, I will always give praise to the Ukrainians for not giving up. We love you Ukrainians from Africa and thank you for loving your country up to the point of dying for it.

[johnpepple]

Ukrainians, this me from Nigeria saying, thank you for standing tall in the midst of difficulty and challenging times, weldone for your zeal, courage and bravery in defending your country.

[sarahsanford]

Just an interesting note that often gets overlooked in the West. In Onuch and Hale's book The Zelensky Effect, they note that while Zelenskyy's approval rating was low, it was multiple times higher that previous Ukrainian presidents at the same time in their presidency, and that's even after Zelenskyy had to deal with the Eastern conflict and COVID. So, by Western standards that is low approval rating, by Ukrainian standards it is relatively high.

[mland]

After such a dark first day of the war, I remember hearing about the defense at Hostomel and getting the first real feeling of hope that we weren't going to see a rout of Ukraine. It didn't feel like much at the time, but it was something. And almost a year later, we can see that that hope was real.

[andrews]

"Act 2, Russia would be that silly" Had me in stitches. Great insight and delivery.

[toptiertonye]

My favorite part “there’s no way Russia would be that silly? Act 2, …Russia would be that silly” lol lol priceless

[matiashogden]

Chief NCO of the Norwegian Navy recently stated he has never slept better than now, as most of the arctic units from Murmansk/Cola Peninsula have been entirely destroyed.

[MariBorow]

This battle was on every media in my country (Poland) and everyone was describing it as crucial in first days. So not very "hidden" 😜

[rubenramirez]

Great, Great video. I gotta say, "if your not the best, your damn close to it" You keep making them, I'll keep watching them.
...FANTASTIC!

[picturemaker]

I was at Billund Airport with other spectators for the arrival of the 225. It was an incredible experience to have it fly over our heads when coming in to land. Little did we know it would be it's last mission.

[michaelmueller]

There is one additional detail: The first Russian paratroopers were not equipped with (enough) night-visions. So the time of attacking Hostomel was in the early morning hours, not in the night. And the Ukrainians were able to react to the attack more quickly and were less caught by surprise.

[Otterdisappointment]

I heard about how Hostomel was a bloody battle the day it happened and I also heard about a streamlined copy being used to ferry cargo for military purposes whereas the one in the hanger was just an exhibit. Ignoring the fact a better, smaller replacement could easily be made today. But the columns kicking up radioactive dust in Pripyat made headlines.

[Paul-extd]

Thank you for such an excellent inside investigation of the beginning of the Russian - Ukrainian war and how something most think unimportant, becomes a very disisive point within the War. And keep up the excellent reporting. From Paul Morrison from Canada.

[Paul-mdde]

I live near Brize Norton RAF base in the UK, i remember watching the 225 coming into land there some years ago, what an awesome sight. Slava Ukraine ❤

[tmk]

I have certainly caught bits and pieces of this battle. Russian media went on the tarmac, filmed the devastated airport in a needlessly excited fashion and then pointed to Ukraine as saboteurs of their own infrastructure.
It's glorious to see all the different bits of footage and reporting come together. Once again helps me make sense of the world. Thank you, William!

[UsikArtem]

As a Ukrainian, I know the actions. But the quality and realness of the storytelling made me watch the whole video thrilled. Thank you, William Spaniel.

[HeyGuy]

I love hearing about the first part of the war. I've been eagerly awaiting content about this critical battle