"Kyiv will stand as long as Chernihiv stands. As long as Kyiv stands, Ukraine keeps fighting."

This quote from Taras Chmut, founder of the Come Back Alive Foundation, captures the essence of the predicament of the Ukrainian defence forces in Chernihiv on the morning of 24 February 2022. Convoys of Russian military vehicles and hardware, stretching out over dozens of kilometres, are easy to spot on satellite images of Russian territory just the other side of the Ukrainian border on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

On the morning of 24th of February, all of that hardware was unleashed on Ukraine, where it was met by the 1st Tank Brigade, all on its own bar several smaller units. But somehow the Ukrainian forces were able to engage – and indeed stop – the Russian army.

The Kharkiv defence forces undertook a similarly miraculous effort to stop the Russian invasion on the eastern stretch of the northern front.

Ukrainska Pravda presents part two of the final episode of our series 24 February 2022 Reconstructed, which tells the story of day one of Russia’s full-scale invasion.