Gostomel
On 6 March 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Gostomel and five other Ukrainian cities the title of "Hero City" for their defence against Russian troops (1).
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 by Vladimir Putin's troops, there have been towns that will unfortunately go down in history not only for the war, but also for the brutality and murder of civilians. Borodyanka, Bucha, Irpin, Ivankiv, Gostomel, were clear examples of the above, all close to the Belarusian border from which Russian troops made their way to Kiev.
From the outset, the international air cargo airport on the outskirts of the town of Gostomel was a strategic objective for the invading troops, who knew that if they managed to conquer it and maintain a spearhead there, it would be an extremely important logistical asset due to its proximity to Kiev and the amount of military personnel and material that would arrive on its runways, which is why the Ukrainian troops tried from the outset to prevent the airport from falling into the hands of the Russian paratroopers. But while the most important battle was taking place on 24-25 February at the airport, the inhabitants of the town of Gostomel also began to suffer the tragic consequences.
Introduction
Before going into what the battle of Gostomel was like and the level of destruction at the airport and in the town centre, it is necessary to describe what Gostomel was like before the Russian troops entered.
Gostomel was a quiet Ukrainian village in the north-central part of the country, surrounded by forests that made it live in harmony with nature and located in the Kiev Oblast (2). There is evidence of its existence at least since the year 1494, which can be found on the coat of arms of the town, as well as an image of the Church of the Intercession.
In the Ukrainian territorial and administrative classification, Gostomel was an urban nucleus without the status of a town or what would be in Spain a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants. The surrounding town was Irpin on which Gostomel depended for budgetary matters, which caused unease among the local authorities (3) who sought Kiev's approval of Gostomel's budgetary independence and city status as it was expanding and had approximately 17,000 inhabitants.
The local authorities were determined to promote the expansion of Gostomel and therefore the town was promoting campaigns to attract young families as it had built schools, educational centres for children, a stadium and a cultural centre, together with the tranquillity and proximity to the capital.
Gostomel is about 30 km from the centre of Kiev and 20 km from the first districts of the capital, to which hundreds of workers came every day due to the proximity. But the town also provided work for its residents, such as the important glass factory Vetropack (4), which directly employed more than 200 people, or the Farkos company specialising in pharmaceuticals, as well as agricultural companies such as Buchanskyi. As for the Antonov international air cargo airport, for which the town of Gostomel, 2 km away, was mostly known, it also employed an unspecified number of people. However, the Gostomel Settlement Council or the Gostomel town council had a section on its website called "Live and work in Gostomel" which provided information on available jobs in companies, institutions and organisations (5).
Battle at the airport
The town of Gostomel was the site of the Antonov international air cargo airport and in its hangars the world's largest aircraft, the AN-225, nicknamed in Ukrainian "Mriya" meaning "dream", which played an important role in bringing humanitarian and medical aid to the European Union during the coronavirus pandemic (6), was destroyed during the first days of the battle when fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in the hangars and administrative buildings took place there.
On 24 February 2022, after years of hostilities between Ukraine and Russia over the Russian occupation of Crimea and part of the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk in the Ukrainian region of Donbas, Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, one of the entry points being the Belarusian border, very close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and just over an hour from the centre of Kiev, the main objective of the Russian troops, which CIA Director William J. Burns had already warned about (7) at the meeting of the CIA Director William J. Burns (8). Burns (7) had already warned of this when he met with President Zelensky in Kiev in January 2022 to inform him of the invasion plans Putin had in mind and that Gostomel airport was a prime target, so it was to be expected that Ukrainian intelligence would take good note.
The entry into Ukraine across the Belarusian border was carried out with hundreds of armoured vehicles, helicopter gunships and airborne forces. While the armoured vehicles made their way from the Belarusian border into Ukrainian territory, reaching Chernobyl and Ivankiv, the airborne forces and helicopters arrived at Gostomel airport before 6 a.m. on 24 February. Its importance was vital and strategic (8) for the Russian troops if they were to reach the capital by lightning, as an important logistical and supply centre for them.
If they had succeeded in gaining a foothold on that objective, it would have changed the course of the war because of the amount of reinforcements and supplies that would undoubtedly have arrived at the airport, which would also have influenced the nearby towns of Ivankiv, Bucha and Irpin and of course the capital Kiev.
The Russians had the elite 331st Airborne Parachute Brigade known by the acronym VDV, which had BMD and BTR-D combat vehicles, which were transported by Il-76 aircraft, with acceptable armour for small arms and grenade launchers but weak against powerful anti-tank missiles (9) such as the Javelin and Ukrainian Stugna, which ultimately made these troops vulnerable to ambushes by Ukrainian resistance in the area.
On 24 February, they conquered the Gostomel airport, overcoming the Ukrainian army units stationed there. The Russian paratroopers did not yet have the support of the remaining armoured columns advancing from Ivankiv, nor did they have the numerous airborne reinforcements that were to land at the airport in Il-76 aircraft, which were arriving in isolation and risked being shot down by anti-aircraft missiles. The Ukrainian army took advantage of this to launch a counter-attack on the airport with the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade of the National Guard, which was supported by artillery. The Ukrainians managed to overcome Russian resistance and capture the airport, but only briefly, as the Russian paratroopers managed to regain control of the airport.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army used its artillery to disable the airport's runway to prevent the Russians from using it for the arrival of personnel and material, which they eventually succeeded in doing.
For a month the Russian troops held the position both at the airport and in the town centre, but suffered heavy casualties (10), as they were surrounded by Ukrainian resistance which was also fighting hard in Ivankiv, Irpin and Bucha trying to break the Russian army's supply chain. On 31 March, Russia ordered its troops to withdraw from the airport, given the military exhaustion of holding a position that had ceased to be strategic given the casualties and damage to the airstrip caused by Ukrainian artillery.
Russian and Chechen troops had been in the town of Gostomel for nearly 35 days, where they had been fighting the Ukrainian army. The ambush suffered by Russian armoured troops weeks earlier in one of the town's main roundabouts on Sviato-Pokrovska Street, where approximately twenty armoured vehicles were destroyed, leaving the street strewn with the bodies of Russian soldiers (11), is well known. All of this destruction was repeated in Irpin and Bucha, thus dispelling Putin's idea of a blitzkrieg aimed at taking Kiev or laying siege to it, and thus facilitating a puppet government of Moscow. The retreat of Russian troops back to the Belarusian border meant the beginning of a war of attrition, the epicentres of which would be Kharkov, Kherson and the Donbas not controlled by Russian troops, a war that is still going on and with no sign of a solution for the time being. Nor is there any plan for a ceasefire for the time being, probably until the casualties are so heavy that they are difficult to bear.
But if this happened on the military level, the civilians of Gostomel suffered a harsh occupation, which gave way to fear and suffering. Out of a population of 17,000, thousands were able to leave the town through the humanitarian corridor in early March, while others remained in their homes.
Civilian suffering
The civilian population of the town of Gostomel experienced the first day of the invasion with great anxiety, as the proximity of the airport and the military quarter attached to it made them listen to the loud detonations that were taking place. It was only a matter of hours before the town itself was affected by the invasion of the Russian troops.
Some of the civilian population decided to leave for other safe areas, but they had to do so quickly because Russian troops were beginning to take up positions around Gostomel. The 25th of February was a day of escape for those who were able to leave the town, as did Natasha Ivzhenko, a Spanish teacher in Kiev and a refugee in Zaragoza, whose testimony to questions from the youtuber Iryna Fedchenko is reproduced below (12). Natasha left Gostomel on 25 February for a safe place in Ukraine, away from the fighting, where she stayed for about three weeks, but on 19 March there was a turning point in her life and the conversation with her husband was decisive: "You have to leave the country because you don't know when this will end [...], I can't leave the country because I don't know when it will end [...], I can't leave the country because I don't know when it will end [...]. I can't leave the country, you are the only one who can drive and you can save our children and yourself" she also commented as a testimony what happened to her mother-in-law "My mother-in-law didn't want to leave her flat, she didn't want to leave, nobody... nobody imagined that they were going to kill civilians and destroy cities completely" she finally left her house because the electricity, water and gas were cut off and she moved into Natasha's house, which was uninhabited but there was a generator with petrol that allowed her to charge her mobile phone and make a bowl of soup, for example. She lived there for 15 days under bombs and missiles, unable to return home because the building was badly damaged by a Russian missile. She was able to leave Gostomel and eventually ended up with her daughter-in-law Natasha.
Natasha's journey to Spain was very hard. On the way to the Polish border, she wrote the word "children" on the bonnet of her car in Russian to avoid gunfire and air raids, which did not guarantee that this would not happen. Finally, after crossing the Polish border and a bumpy passage through France due to a vehicle breakdown, she arrived in our country.
Regarding a future return to Ukraine, she said, "I need peace, nothing else [...] I am safe here, I can walk [...] but I would love to return, to help rebuild my Gostomel [...] I have my parents in Kiev, I would like to see them and continue my life in my homeland with my family".
Returning to the battle in the city centre, one of the epicentres was the Sviato-Pokrovska roundabout. This street not only witnessed ambushes of Russian armoured vehicles, but also the killing of civilians shot by the occupants as they drove around in their vehicles, some of whom were identified by external surveillance cameras on buildings (13).
While the fighting raged in the streets, the residents remained in the basements of their homes and buildings, without water, food, electricity and closely watched by Russian and Chechen troops. When an invasion and siege of this kind happens, there are a number of people for whom the hardships are multiplied, some were the elderly and those with limited mobility who were prevented from moving to a safe place, and others were people with serious health problems who were not attended to, In an article by Amnesty International, 38-year-old Elena Kozachenko, a resident of the stricken city of Chernobyl, wrote: "I have cancer and I need medication. The last chemotherapy session was on 23 February. The next one is supposed to be on 16 April. I need the check-ups, but there is constant shelling in the neighbourhood where the cancer hospital is, it is too dangerous to go there" (14).
Once Russian and Chechen troops left the city 35 days after occupying it, they left behind a trail of death and destruction. More than half of the city was destroyed, with hundreds missing and thousands displaced. This is the horrifying situation that the inhabitants of Gostomel and also of Irpin and Bucha, which formed the sinister triangle of the occupation, found themselves in. Most of the buildings had been hit by artillery and many of the houses were full of rubble and those that were not destroyed had been looted, as had many shops and supermarkets, with many of the houses also being used by the Russian and Chechen occupiers as rest stops. A resident of the city who went to his destroyed flat could not only see the level of destruction of the building where he lived, but on entering his rubble-strewn home, he also noticed that in the kitchen there was the body of a Chechen militiaman (15) who was abandoned by his comrades.
The future in Gostomel
A year later, Gostomel has regained a small part of its pre-war activity. Public transport to Kiev is frequent with the limitations imposed by the situation. Small businesses are still less active but cafés and hypermarkets are open. The labour market is very damaged, especially because many of the inhabitants left Gostomel and are gradually returning, but without being able to make plans even in the short term because of the war situation that still remains in the country, where a large part of the population is mobilised and another part has lost their homes or has been damaged by the war.
In June 2022, the Head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, said that the city of Gostomel had been destroyed but that a working group would be drawing up daily guidelines for the reconstruction of the city (16).
More than a few organisations and companies are gathering information on the level of destruction caused by the invasion. The Ukrainian company Smart Farming based in Kiev together with the Ukrainian company Zemli-vkursi initiated the RebuildUA project (17), which aims to visualise and digitise data on the destroyed infrastructure of Ukraine using technical means such as drones and humans on the destroyed terrain, disseminating this information to the country's authorities and specialised bodies. The authors of the project produced a report on Gostomel, which can be seen on the project's website and reflects the still lamentable state of many of the buildings. According to the report, almost 5,000 buildings in the town were damaged and nearly 500 were destroyed.
Similarly, the French company Neo-Eco has undertaken to restore houses in Gostomel because of the extent of the destruction. In July 2022, the company's director met with staff of the Kiev Regional Military Administration (KOVA) and in September a memorandum with the military administration on the reconstruction of six destroyed buildings was signed in the presence of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna (18).
Conclusions
For Putin, Gostomel meant the end of his so-called blitzkrieg and the beginning of the war of attrition. The Russian troops lost some of their best troops at the airport and then in the city centre to the resistance of the Ukrainian army, which knew the terrain well enough to set up ambushes, cut Russian supply lines, and also had anti-aircraft artillery and air support which, however few in number compared to Russian fighters, was enough to prevent them from gaining air dominance.
All of the above was complemented by the support of an intelligence service that relied on information from the director of the CIA when he indicated in January 2022 that Putin's invasion of the territory and more specifically of Gostomel airport could take place in a short time, as ended up happening on 24 February 2022.
The Russians finally managed to take the airport on the 25th, but what they really found very difficult was to make their intended spearhead operational, as the runway was destroyed by Ukrainian artillery, leaving them to hold their position, surrounded by a Ukrainian army that became more and more entrenched on the ground as the days went by and which ended up defeating the Russian troops, pushing them back to the Belarusian border.
As for the inhabitants of the village of Gostomel, initial uncertainty gave way to fear. More than 400 Gostomel residents are estimated to have disappeared (19) after the Russian invasion. Thousands managed to flee through humanitarian corridors, while others were unlucky and were killed in their cars as they tried to leave the town for safety. These were days of anguish and panic for the citizens who remained in the town, many of them hiding in cellars so as not to be detected by the occupying troops.
Gostomel is gradually regaining some of its tranquillity, because it will be very difficult to recover all of it as long as Putin is determined to continue the war. Despite the relative relaxation of the curfew and the return of public transport with restrictions, life in Gostomel is at a standstill in terms of work, with little economic or commercial activity, and residents are relying on the aid provided by the local authorities and humanitarian associations, many of them from the EU.
As for housing, many of the houses are not safe because many of them are severely damaged and the villagers have to live outside. This village surrounded by forests and nature saw many of its inhabitants killed by invading troops one day and it was no longer what it once was, an idyllic place to live.
Ukrainian troops thwarted the blitzkrieg and Putin's plan in late February to sit down and negotiate with the Ukrainian military to end the invasion, saying "it will be easier to reach an agreement" than with Zelensky (20). In the end, it was these soldiers who managed to drive Putin's troops away from the Kiev Oblast and months later from Kharkov, also liberating a large part of the Kherson Oblast. Now, in May 2023, these Ukrainian soldiers are holding out in Bakhmut (Donetsk).
PROVERB
"There is neither a small enemy nor an invincible giant".
Luis Montero is a political scientist and contributor to Sec2Crime. Analyst and Researcher at the Observatory on the Terrorist Threat and Jihadist Radicalisation (OCATRY).
DATES
1-BOHDANYOK Olena. Digital suspilne-media (06/03/2022). Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol, Kherson, Gostomel and Volnovakha received the title of "Hero City" - President. (Original version in Ukrainian). https://suspilne-media.translate.goog/214620-harkiv-cernigiv-mariupol-herson-gostomel-i-volnovaha-otrimali-zvanna-misto-geroj-prezident/?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_hist=true
2-The real estate agency "SUN" in Irpin. Gostomel is a small town with great prospects (original version in Russian). https://www-san-in-ua.translate.goog/gostomel/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
3-KONSTANTINOV Igor. Digital Kiev V last. (Source ITV news agency). (23/12/2019). It became known why the head of Gostomel Yuri Prilipko left the executive committee of the Buchansk City Council. (Original version in Ukrainian). https://kievvlast-com-ua.translate.goog/news/stalo-izvestno-pochemu-glava-gostomelya-yurij-prilipko-vyshel-iz-ispolkoma-buchanskogo-gorsoveta-video?noredirect=true&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
4-Vetropack. Our plant in Gostomel. (Original version in English). https://www-vetropack-com.translate.goog/en/about-us/locations/gostomel/?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
5-Gostomel settlement council and military administration. Official site. Information about available vacancies in enterprises, institutions and organisations in Gostomel.(Original version in Ukrainian). https://www-gostomel--rada-gov-ua.translate.goog/zhivi-ta-pratsyuj-gostomeli?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
6-The Economist (22/04/2020). The mythical Antonov AN-225, the world's largest aircraft, returns to fight against the coronavirus. https://www.eleconomista.es/status/noticias/10495612/04/20/La-historia-del-Antonov-AN225-el-avion-mas-grande-del-mundo-que-vuelve-para-luchar-contra-el-coronavirus.html
7-BAZAR Oleg. Digital LB.ua. (24/02/2023) Battle for Gostomel. How the Russian blitzkrieg plan failed. (Original Ukrainian version). https://lb-ua.translate.goog/society/2023/02/24/546992_bitva_gostomel_yak_zaznav_krahu.html?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
8-DANIIL Snisar. Digital Podrobnosti. (24 February 2023) Gostomel airport: chronicle of the defence of a strategically important object. (Original version in Ukrainian). https://podrobnosti-ua.translate.goog/2467758-gostomelskij-aeroport-hronka-oboroni-strategchno-vazhlivogo-obkta.html?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
9-HACHA David. Forbes (03/04/2022). Ukrainians mutilated one of the best regiments of the Russian army. (Original version in English). https://www-forbes-com.translate.goog/sites/davidaxe/2022/04/03/the-ukrainians-have-nearly-destroyed-one-of-the-russian-armys-best-regiments/?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc&sh=391f2fdb6c94&_x_tr_hist=true
10-URBAN Mark. BBC Digital. (02/04/2022). Russia and Ukraine: the huge losses of the elite regiment that Moscow sent to advance on Kiev. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-60970535
11-DEL RINCON Fernando. CNN en español. (03.04.2022). At least 20 Russian tanks burn in the streets of Hostomel, Ukraine destroyed with the help of resistance groups). https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/video/ucrania-destruye-tanques-rusos-calles-hostomel-fernando-del-rincon-conclusiones-cnne/
12-FEDCHENKO Iryna. Youtube channel. 27 May 2022. Ukrainian woman gives testimony of what it is like to live under Russian invasion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UR5jhWvcrM&t=493s
13-CHERNIKOV Andriy, Digital Glavkom (29/09/2022). Russians fired on civilians in Gostomel for six hours. Chronicle of a terrible crime.(Original version in Ukrainian). https://glavcom.ua/publications/rosijani-shist-hodin-rozstriljuvali-tsivilnikh-u-hostomeli-khronika-odnoho-strashnoho-zlochinu-878595.html
14-AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (10 March 2022). Ukraine: Humanitarian corridors for civilians fleeing Russian attacks must offer safety. New testimonies. https://www.es.amnesty.org/en-que-estamos/noticias/noticia/articulo/ucrania-los-corredores-humanitarios-para-la-poblacion-civil-que-huye-de-los-ataques-rusos-deben-ofrecer-seguridad-nuevos-testimonios/
15-ZAKREVSKA Sofia. Digital Obozrevatel (Telegram) (01/06/2022). A resident of Gostomel found the body of a resident of Kadyrov in his destroyed flat. (Original version in Ukrainian). https://war-obozrevatel-com.translate.goog/ukr/zhitel-gostomelya-znajshov-u-svoij-zrujnovanij-kvartiri-tilo-kadirivtsya.htm?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_hist=true
16-DUROVA Daria. Digital Obozrevatel (Telegram) (04/06/2022). Recovery begins in Gostomel: the head of the Regional State Administration spoke about the government's plans. (Original version in Ukrainian). https://war-obozrevatel-com.translate.goog/ukr/gostomel-pochinayut-vidbudovuvati-selische-zrujnuvali-okupanti-video.htm?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_hist=true
17-REBUILDUA. (2022) Gostomel. The city that protected the airport and the Ukrainian "Dream". (Original version in Ukrainian and in English). https://rebuildua-net.translate.goog/hostomel?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_hist=true#custom
18-KOLESNICHENKO Oleksandr. Digital Epravda.com. Economy (28/03/2023). Production without waste. How the French are rebuilding houses in Gostomel from construction waste. (Original version in Ukrainian). https://www-epravda-com-ua.translate.goog/publications/2023/03/28/698387/?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=sc
19-NIUS Digital (Source Europa Press).(06/04/2022). Hostomel: more than 400 people unaccounted for. https://www.niusdiario.es/internacional/europa/gostomel-personas-paradero-desconocido_18_3309870038.html
20-THE INFORMATION (25/02/2022). Putin asks the Ukrainian army to take power in order to reach an agreement in the country. https://www.lainformacion.com/mundo/putin-pide-ejercito-ucraniano-tomar-poder-llegar-acuerdo-pais/2860869/