Ukraine Airport Battle: Ambush at Zero Dark Forty

HOSTOMEL, UKRAINE - In part two of this video series we looked at how - on the first day of the Russian invasion - Hostomel airport was hit by first a cruise missile, then by three hours of helicopter strafing, followed by Russian special forces being inserted by helicopters.
That night, Ukrainian forces tried to infiltrate the area around the airport to shoot down incoming Russian troop-carrier planes. A force of 48 Ukrainian paratroopers were approaching the airport under cover of darkness when they were spotted by a Russian microdrone. Here’s what happened next.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Ukrainians, knowing they had been spotted, stormed the airport, but they ran into the airport’s tall concrete wall topped with barbed wire.
Lacking explosives to blast through, the team cut a hole in the wire and started scaling the wall.
Five made it over. Then a Russian machine gun opened up at them. Three of the Ukrainians were badly injured.
The incoming fire pinned the team down, and a grenade exploded close to them, setting the grass around them on fire. They realized that the enemy had used their time to build a strong line of defense, so they called in coordinates for Ukrainian artillery to hit the enemy from the south.
At that stage, another Ukrainian attack was launched by an armored unit that had approached the airport from the north, so the team managed to set up firing positions for anti-aircraft missiles.
Their commander was then told via radio that the Russian airlift operation was called off, because the Russians realized Ukrainian missile teams were active in the zone outside the airport perimeter.
We’ll show you how the battle for Hostomel ended tomorrow. The battle happened on the first day of the invasion, and it resulted in a flood of video footage as Ukrainian civilians used their phone cameras to record images of the battle.
The footage shows hundreds of Russian helicopters flying low over Ukraine as they headed toward the strategic airport. Some also show Russian helicopters being shot down by missile teams while on their way.
SOURCES: Wall Street Journal, New York Times
www.wsj.com/articles/putin-th...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...

[@orneryokinawan4529]

It's my news station!

[@taymeck8108]

War never changes

[@davidparnell1903]

Hi

[@IAVEIRC]

Where did they get that dashcam footage?

[@gailwaters814]

Climbing that wall was a bad move. I guess they were hoping to get lucky and find an empty part of the airport's fields. But their intel should have told them there was a large force of Russian special forces inside the wall, probably armed with night vision. They could have set up missile positions outside the wall. There was no need for all that risk. Luckily the battle ended well for Ukr the next day.

[@drsm7947]

this why recon drones are very effective

[@queentanya3787]

I just watched documentary About this and real stories from one of the soldiers who stormed that airport through that fence they were 5 and three injured the Russian were waiting for them also he was the one who shot the helicopter. Watche on KZbin he is called Zeus.

[@mobiusZero2]

If the Infiltrate Ukraine forces didn't assault the airport, Russian would have gotten much closer the capital

[@ZAELish]

when the btr fired at the tank it aimed for just between the tracks and skirt

[@drbendover7467]

Putin is tooting when he's Putin:)

[@GChaudhrySahab]

your one click can change my whole life 🙏😭😭🙏:::::::

[@sim2096]

Urra

[@arkojyotigoswami4241]

First comment.

[@KrelloCC]

First

[@humangrowthhormone4576]

For every successful Ukraine operation there are 10 more successful Russian operations.

[@rvarsigfusson6163]

After the first week of battle there where ONLY 498 russian solders down/dead/killed....... and it was stable for the next two weeks or was it three weeks......... that`s is a facto from russia with love