Day One of the Full-Scale Invasion

Like many others, we didn’t sleep all night and want to share our observations about how it became clear the invasion was only hours away. Even before midnight, russia closed its airspace along the entire eastern and northern border with Ukraine, a clear signal that the full-scale invasion was about to begin.

For a while experts argued about whether this was a fake, but Flightradar showed a clear picture. Planes coming from India, China and Southeast Asia that normally used that corridor began diverting much farther east and flying over Moscow. Signs that a fight was coming also appeared in our airspace.

Air Traffic Anomalies

Lately we had noticed planes flying from Boryspil to Almaty or Baku suddenly turn sharply north toward Chernihiv, cross the border into russia there, and then continue on their course. This time, however, the plane bound for Almaty went strictly west and only in Polish airspace turned north to skirt Belarus. It made a huge loop of several hundred kilometres — something not done without a serious reason. In addition, there was a report that the Dnipro airport was closed until morning. Later the same was written about Zaporizhzhia.

Our An-140 from Kraków was approaching one of those airports and had already begun its descent, but it turned around and headed to Zhuliany. At the same time, near our border on the Polish side, a LOT Airlines Warsaw–Kyiv flight circled several times. Also, an Israeli aircraft that was supposed to transit through our airspace from Romania to Poland made a sudden turn and left our skies. That’s when it became clear the countdown was already under way. Then colleagues reported that heavy equipment had been driven onto the runways in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia to prevent the enemy from landing aircraft.

Official Announcements and AFU Reports

After that, foreign news agencies reported a speech by pootin that he had recorded on February 21 announcing a declaration of war on Ukraine. Here is what the AFU Telegram channel writes:

Today, February 24, in the Joint Operations area 5 enemy planes and a helicopter were shot down. The joint forces are giving a worthy rebuff to the armed forces of russia. Military units are at their positions. The enemy is taking losses. Stay calm and believe in our defenders. Together we will win! Glory to Ukraine.

Unfortunately, immediately after pootin’s speech there was no official response from our side, and instead explosions of rockets were heard in many cities. As always, a flood of various information followed — some of it from verified sources who saw with their own eyes things burning in Vasylkiv. From two of our own sources we were told about a missile strike on Nizhyn. In both cases the targets were airfields. There were many other reports, but we heard only what we heard ourselves in Kyiv, like everyone else. In this situation it’s better to rely on official sources and get information first-hand.

Full-Scale Invasion from russia and belarus

No explanations are needed: russia and Belarus committed open aggression against Ukraine, and the war began as a conventional one, with all the resulting consequences. All those eight years that pootin insisted they were not there — that someone else was doing the fighting, and all those who echoed him, from Merkel and Steinmeier to Trump — have been branded liars. In a sense something like this could have happened in 2016, 2017 or another year, but it happened now, and thank God we already have a well-armed army capable of resisting pootin’s aggression. As for pootin, lukashenko and their leper colonies, they have burned their bridges to the civilized world.

In these first hours and days of the war it is crucial to draw information about combat operations from verified sources. Unfortunately, even eyewitnesses, seeing something like this for the first time, can misjudge the situation and unintentionally create a fake. Therefore, it’s preferable to operate either on information coming from people you absolutely trust and who have combat experience, or to be such a source yourself.

This is important now because in a few days a new reality will settle in people’s minds, and it will become much easier both to assess events and to distinguish intentional lies or honest mistakes from real events. Looking at the overall picture of the day, many reports indicate the russians have stalled. They are suffering losses and, oddly, russians often surrender, including intelligence troops and paratroopers. On the official AFU page there is an account of a whole reconnaissance platoon of the 74th motor rifle brigade surrendering near Chernihiv.

The Battle for Hostomel Airport

According to our military summaries, the situation at Hostomel airport unfolded as follows. First the airport area was struck by attack aircraft, then a landing was made from some thirty helicopters. National Guard units engaged and destroyed three helicopters and part of the landing force. As a result, the remaining group of russian occupiers found themselves without air support and were hit by artillery. Now the remnants of the landing force are hiding in the woods.

Meanwhile, reservists who had previously fought russia have been coming to their units without much invitation — a reminder that the full-scale invasion demands a united response from those ready to finish what they didn’t have time to in 2014. Now the masks are off and it’s time for the russians to answer for both old deeds and what they have done now.

We believe in our military and help them however we can. The fate of Ukraine lies on their shoulders now. We either put our shoulders to the task, or we help make the burden less heavy.

We will win!