Good article about the battle of Antonov airport on the first day of the war.
The Counteroffensive: The battle that saved Kyiv from Russian occupation
Some excerpts:
In the first hours of his full-scale invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his most elite troops to get behind enemy lines to an airfield right outside Kyiv that was normally used for cargo and flight testing – Antonov Airport in Hostomel. Dozens of helicopters ferried hundreds of Russian airborne soldiers to within striking distance of the capital city’s central district.
Even among those who thought a full-scale invasion was likely, there were doubts that it would target Kyiv. But the Ukrainians can’t say they weren’t warned: CIA Director William Burns visited Kyiv less than two months before the invasion, specifically warning that the Russians would try to seize Antonov Airfield in order to create an air bridge into the Kyiv region, swiftly overthrow the government, and capture the capital.
The plan called for 18 enormous Russian strategic cargo planes, IL-76s, to fly to the newly-secured Antonov Airfield with further reinforcements of infantry, armored vehicles, and artillery. There had also been a well-thought-out infiltration plan in which Russia supporters already in Ukraine would help airborne and special operations troops access the capital, less than an hour’s drive away.
The Russian military has a history of airborne assaults, such as when they captured Prishtina Airport in Kosovo in 1999. In 1968, Soviet troops swiftly captured an airport in Prague, allowing large cargo aircraft to arrive and unload tanks to crush the Prague Spring. In both cases – and unlike at Antonov Airfield – they met little to no resistance. And it appears the Russians were counting on that again.
https://kyivindependent.com/opinion-russias-failure-to-take-kyiv-was-pure-luck/
