Liberation of Irpin from Russian Invaders

March 30, 2022November 17, 2025

The liberation of Irpin happened on March 28, 2022, when Ukrainian defenders freed the city in the Kyiv region. Irpin paid a high price for not letting the enemy into Ukraine’s capital. During the fighting, 39 fighters of Irpin’s Territorial Defense died, along with over 50 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. More than 300 civilian residents of the city also died, including 20 children. If the city authorities hadn’t conducted the evacuation of the civilian population, tens of thousands would have died. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 95% of people were evacuated. As a result of the battle for Irpin, over 70% of the community’s infrastructure was destroyed.

Who Defended Irpin

Fighters of the 72nd separate mechanized brigade named after the Black Cossacks, the 80th separate air assault brigade, as well as fighters of other Armed Forces groupings and city territorial defense warriors fought against the occupiers who sought to break through to Kyiv.
On March 8, experts recorded the last successful attempt by Russian forces to advance on the right bank toward Kyiv. They moved from the previously occupied village of Babyntsi toward Kyiv “with forces up to five BTGs” (battalion tactical groups). But they couldn’t advance beyond Bucha. From this moment, Russian troops lost the ability to advance and began preparing for defense. They began to fortify themselves in occupied territories. There were forecasts that Russia would try to turn the war into positional fighting and use its numerical advantage in artillery to destroy Kyiv and its defenders.

On March 21, Russians were close to getting the opportunity to shell the center of Kyiv not only with cruise and ballistic missiles but also with artillery. For this, they needed to approach the target closer than 25 km. This was important for them because stocks of expensive missiles are limited. The capital’s air defense system counteracts them. Artillery shells are virtually impossible to intercept. They’re very cheap and Russians have huge stocks of them. Artillery brought the greatest destruction to Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and other cities.

The Turning Point

On March 22, the Armed Forces knocked Russians out of Makarov, a settlement near the Zhytomyr highway, and from the village of Moshchun near Pushcha-Vodytsia, northeast of Irpin city, across the river of the same name.

A day later, the first reports appeared about the encirclement of the Russian grouping in Bucha and Irpin. Ukrainian troops pushed Russians back to Borodyanka and reached the outskirts of the Warsaw highway. This is precisely where that long Russian column passed. Western publications published it as a symbol of the “power” of the Russian army.

Very strangely, another picture remained almost unnoticed. This is a NASA service that collects information about fires visible from space. Current fires are marked in red, past fires in yellow. The diagram clearly shows a long chain of red spots along the highway — these are destroyed Russian columns.

After the Ukrainian army destroyed Russian rear areas and logistics, the operation for the liberation of Irpin began. The Armed Forces recaptured street by street in close combat. Russian troops based themselves in a triangle in the western part of the city and in the northeast.

Eyewitness Accounts

Here’s what one participant in the battle for Irpin tells:

Russians fortified themselves in buildings and shot back, burned our equipment. But the main problem is that they hit us very hard with artillery. Mortars, Grads, everything. In the first 4 hours after we entered, they laid down 260 shells, we counted. Our artillery couldn’t shell Russians so actively because civilians were everywhere.

The hardest final battles took place in the area of Hostomel highway and the military hospital on the northern outskirts of the city. The liberation of Irpin was already concluding then. Here’s the story of a soldier who directly participated in liberating the military hospital:

When we arrived in Irpin, we had a task to bring in a military-tactical group so our forces could regroup. Fighters needed to restore their strength. We had to distract the enemy’s attention, and meanwhile our fighters took their positions. For about three hours we drove along the route that the command determined. We took fire upon ourselves so our troops could regroup.
When our troops were ready for battle, the ‘Adam’ group was given the task to first drive Russians out of the territory of Irpin military hospital. Two buildings had already been freed from the enemy, two remained.

We periodically struck it to drive out Russians. They shelled us with mortars. The commander of the ‘Adam’ group drove first and began firing from the tank at the buildings. Our forces came in from the flank, and we freed the military hospital’s territory.

Aftermath and Recovery

Now the city slowly returns to life. Despite Russian shelling attempts to break through, patrol police and sappers work in Irpin. They begin to demine the city to later rebuild the destroyed buildings. The liberation of Irpin saved Kyiv from what Russians prepared for the capital. Irpin survived what Russians prepared for Kyiv. Nobody knows whether Irpin will again become a quiet Kyiv suburb.