When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the capital Kyiv was predicted to fall within 72 hours. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy risked his own life to stay put and resist, declaring his nation's resolve to defend its right to independence. Based on interviews with Zelenskyy's closest aides, official government releases and global media reports, we reconstruct the timeline of the critical first 72 hours of the invasion, uncovering fresh revelations about the events that set in motion a new era of global polarization and instability.
February 24, 2022. Russia invades Ukraine.
The capital Kyiv is predicted to fall within 72 hours.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
decides to stay put and resist, declaring his determination to the world.
We are all here.
Our soldiers are here.
Our country's citizens are here.
We are all here defending our independence, our country,
and we will continue to do so.
Aides who were with President Zelenskyy at that historic moment,
have revealed what was happening behind the scenes during those critical first 72 hours.
The Head of the Office of the President...
The initial invasion caught Ukraine's officials off guard.
No one really felt there was an immediate threat
of a military invasion...
until the moment the first missiles came flying in.
The Advisor to the Presidential Office...
Day two saw assassination plots launched against President Zelenskyy.
There were a large number of
undercover Russian operatives in Kyiv.
Car bombings and acts of sabotage were
being plotted and carried out.
The leader of the governing faction...
Day three revealed Russia's major miscalculation.
Russian soldiers had brought uniforms for the victory parade.
They don't view Ukraine as a sovereign nation,
and consider us "Malorussians" or part of Russia.
Kyiv could fall within 72 hours if Moscow invades.
Kyiv could fall within 72 hours.
A nerve-racking 72 hours that would decide Ukraine's fate and the balance of world powers.
We reconstruct the timeline of those fateful hours,
based on the accounts of Zelenskyy's aides,
official releases by both Ukraine and Russia,
and media reports from around the world,
uncovering fresh revelations in the process.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has set in motion a new era of polarization and instability in the world.
We turn our lens on the 72 hours where it all began.
President Zelenskyy was at his compound when the invasion began.
First lady Olena Zelenska was with him.
I was woken by an unfamiliar noise.
It was 5am. I had a feeling
something bad had happened.
My husband wasn't there, so I went to the next room
and found him already dressed.
I asked, "What happened?"
he said, "It's begun."
He looked concerned but calm.
He was a mix of total calmness and great apprehension.
That was the last time I saw him in a suit.
Early morning on February the 24th, 2022.
More than 100 missiles were fired into Ukrainian territory.
I made the decision to launch
a special military operation.
The purpose of the operation is to
protect people who, for eight years now,
have been facing humiliation and genocide
perpetrated by the Kyiv regime.
We will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine,
as well as bring to trial those who
perpetrated numerous bloody crimes,
against civilians, including against citizens
of the Russian Federation.
It is not our plan to occupy the territory of Ukraine.
Some twenty-five minutes after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his so-called "special military operation,"
senior Ukrainian government officials held an emergency meeting at the Presidential Office Building in Kyiv.
Andriy Yermak is the Head of the Office of the President, making him Zelenskyy's right-hand man.
He had received warnings from the CIA that an invasion was imminent,
but had had no way of knowing what day it would come.
The first call I received was from the president,
and when I reached the Presidential Office Building
at 5:15, he was already there.
I was second to arrive, followed by the prime minister,
senior military officers, ministers and so on.
Yermak recalls that the governing faction leader, Davyd Arakhamia, entered just as the war briefing began.
When I arrived, the Chair of the Security Council,
Chief of General Staff, and Yermak were already there.
They started with a briefing on which sites had been hit.
An hour and fifty minutes after Putin's announcement,
President Zelenskyy called international leaders for help,
starting with the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson...
And followed by US President Joe Biden.
Shortly after this, Zelenskyy made his first wartime address to the nation.
This morning President Putin declared the start of a
"special military operation."
Just a minute ago, I spoke with President Biden.
The United States has already begun to coordinate
international assistance.
Today each and every one of you should stay calm.
Don't be afraid and, if possible, please stay home.
The entire Ukrainian army, security services
and defense sector are functioning.
But at that moment Zelenskyy was grappling with an unexpected turn of events:
A surprise attack launched from neighboring Belarus, with which Ukraine shares a border of some thousand kilometers.
Oleksiy Reznikov is Ukraine's Defense Minister.
Two days before the invasion, he had been on the phone with his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin.
The Belarusian defense minister said that,
"there is no threat to Ukraine from the Belarusian side."
Not only did he swear it to me, he even said,
"I give you my word of honor as an officer."
"Any invasion from the Belarusian side would be unthinkable."
In fact, Russia and Belarus had begun holding joint military exercises near the Ukrainian border two weeks before the invasion.
Speaking to international reporters, the Belarusian Defense Minister maintained the exercises did not pose any threat to Ukraine.
The restart of such joint training shows that
we are always ready to engage in dialogue.
We will also provide information to the media,
which you'll be able to see soon.
Defense Minister Khrenin also invited
our military officers to the exercises.
Ukraine and Belarus have an agreement
on the use of border areas.
We are supposed to inform each other
if there is to be any military activity.
A constructive conversation took place
in a pretty good atmosphere.
With these assurances from the Belarusian Defense chief,
the Ukrainian army deployed the bulk of its forces to the eastern and southern parts of the country.
The greatest threat that the command of the Armed Forces
of Ukraine considered was an invasion in Donbas.
It was a logical prediction.
There was a threat from Belarus,
but that threat seemed designed to
prevent us moving our troops east.
We thought it was simply saber-rattling.
However, the troops participating in the joint drills showed no signs of leaving even after their 10-day training schedule was over.
Then came the surprise attack.
The first strike is believed to have been made some 50 minutes before Putin officially started the clock on his special military operation.
This officer was guarding the border with Belarus.
Caught in a surprise drone attack, he was the very first soldier wounded that day.
We weren't expecting to be attacked or to go to war.
We were all just doing our job as usual.
There was no sense of nervousness among the troops.
I also expected that if there ever was an invasion,
it would happen in Donbas first.
A drone flew in and dropped a shell.
Flying shrapnel first pierced my arm and then my abdomen.
From there it ricocheted up toward my heart.
I tried to get up and walk, but I couldn't.
My knees gave way and I collapsed.
The State Border Guard Service of
Ukraine officially reports that
Russian military vehicles have broken through the border
from the Belarusian side in Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions.
The aerial strike was followed by an onslaught of Russian tanks from Belarus.
He didn't warn us, he did nothing. The Belarusian
Defense Minister betrayed his honor as an officer.
In the old days, if that happened,
a true officer would take a pistol and shoot himself.
Unfortunately, that guy in Belarus
lacked the courage to do so.
The Presidential Office Building in Kyiv lies just 90 kilometers from the Belarusian border.
Suddenly there was a real risk that Ukraine's capital might fall.
Two hours and fifteen minutes after Putin's announcement, the first air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv.
Everyone understood that Russia
had its sights set on Kyiv.
Raising the Russian flag above the Presidential Office Building
and parliament was their primary goal.
They thought they would capture Kyiv within 72 hours.
I've seen the operational orders of the commanders
of the Russian Airborne Forces that confirm this.
They were to take control of the area
around the Presidential Office Building within 12 hours.
That's precisely where we are right now.
Made in Ukraine, the Antonov AN-225 Mriya was the world's largest airplane.
A little over 6 hours into the invasion, Russian forces stormed the airfield that housed the aircraft.
Antonov International Airport is located some 30 kilometers from the presidential office building.
Capable of handling the takeoff and landing of large, tank-carrying aircraft,
the facility is of key strategic importance.
Look! So many, I can't even count!
I can't see the Ukrainian coat of arms.
Those are definitely Russian.
Around forty Russian military helicopters flew in from Belarus.
Maneuvering at very low altitude, they evaded air defense radars to launch a stealth strike.
I saw them flying in over there.
You could see the helicopters over that way.
There was a loud noise and rumbling from all directions.
I was stunned, completely taken aback.
For a few seconds I couldn't figure out
what was going on.
If Russia took the airport, they could quickly fly in multiple units,
crushing any hopes of defending the capital.
They planned to seize all the airfields around Kyiv,
taking over control to establish a solid base,
that would allow them to send in wave
after wave of reinforcements.
Ukrainian troops were caught off guard.
Surveillance footage from the airport shows them overwhelmed by Russian attacks, barely able to fight back.
At the time, most of the troops guarding the airport were inexperienced.
What can I say...
No one expected to be attacked from Belarus.
Everyone assumed the offensive
would come from the East.
By February 24th, most Ukrainian troops had moved East.
My unit consisted mainly of conscripts with no experience.
And they didn't really understand their mission.
It all happened so quickly.
When I asked my subordinate,
"Why don't you shoot?"
He replied, "I'm out of ammunition."
By contrast, those storming the airport were elite Russian paratroopers.
Making extensive use of spies,
they had thoroughly researched both the surrounding geography and the internal layout of the airport,
as well as the Ukrainian defenses.
The Russians who landed here
knew our position very well.
They never hesitated.
They knew where to go and what to do.
They knew exactly where to find
the administrative facilities and control tower.
We've taken the control tower!
I felt very bad but we had no choice but to retreat.
Some of us were taken prisoner.
No one expected this to happen.
Antonov International Airport was seized by Russian forces in just four and a half hours from the first strike.
Around the same time, another highly unexpected attack was unfolding.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal held an emergency press conference.
I regret to have to inform you...
that all the facilities of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant
have been occupied by Russian troops.
In 1986, a reactor at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffered core explosions and fires,
resulting in the world's worst-ever nuclear catastrophe.
The damaged facility still remains under tight safety controls,
with its reactor number 4 encased in a steel dome to contain the highly radioactive dust.
Incoming, incoming...
So many tanks!
About 550 heavily armed Russian soldiers streamed into the damaged nuclear facility.
Ukraine's presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, was at the Presidential Office Building when he received the report.
For us it was utterly shocking information,
because Chornobyl is a very dangerous facility.
It represents a real threat, not just for Ukraine,
but for the whole of Eastern Europe.
What became clear at that point
was that the Russian army...
were acting in a completely irrational way.
The atmosphere was really disturbing.
Soon there were phone calls with world leaders...
US President Biden, British Prime Minister Johnson,
European Council President Michel and others.
It was not a calm night.
This man is a safety supervisor at the plant.
He says the Russian army justified their occupation by saying they'd come to protect the facility from terrorists.
They said they'd received orders
to guard the nuclear power plant
because Ukrainian radicals might try to commit terrorist acts.
I asked them if they realized that
they were the ones committing nuclear terrorism?
Foreign troops occupying a nuclear facility marked
a clear case of nuclear terrorism.
The Russian soldiers just grinned.
The occupying troops began digging trenches around the site.
Referred to as the "Red Forest," the area is still highly contaminated with radioactive fallout.
Judging by the number of trenches
they dug in the Red Forest,
the Russians were likely hoping to
strengthen their defenses.
They dug trenches and ate, drank,
and slept in the same contaminated clothes.
When it got warmer, they even took off
their clothes and sunbathed.
Can you imagine?
At those levels of radiation!
Then suddenly, the Russian troops made an even more dangerous move.
The invaders began to cut power lines crucial for cooling spent nuclear fuel.
This created the real threat of a radiation leak occurring at the troubled facility.
That was really scary for everyone.
Plant officials warned that the deadly ash of nuclear fallout would also fall on Russia,
and not just Europe.
They pleaded desperately with the soldiers to restore the power supply to avert an unthinkable situation.
The behavior of Russian soldiers at Chornobyl shows...
that they didn't even have the basic
understanding of what the facility was.
A catastrophic accident could have
happened at any moment.
It was quite unbelievable.
After 36 days, the Russian occupiers finally left the plant,
taking computers and other items of value with them.
Thank you.
In order to close an urgent and overwhelming gap in military manpower,
President Zelenskyy called on veterans and civilians to join active troops in defense of the country.
We will start distributing weapons to everyone
who is willing and able to defend our territory.
We want all Ukrainians to be able to defend
their sovereignty for the future of Ukraine.
Those who have combat experience and can contribute
in defense should immediately go to the registration centers.
I've come here to see for myself.
As you can see, they're handing out weapons.
Those who wish, please hurry to come and pick up yours.
Glory to Ukraine!
With our increased combat readiness,
we are prepared for any situation.
Twelve hours and 40 minutes into the invasion...
President Zelenskyy made his first televised appearance in a T-shirt.
He called on the international community to provide weapons with utmost urgency.
Dear leaders of Europe and the free world.
If you don't assist us now,
if you don't strongly support us now,
then tomorrow, war will come knocking at your door.
In 2014, Russia unilaterally annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
Under continued threat, Ukraine had repeatedly asked European countries and the US for military assistance.
But a huge barrier always stood in the way.
I asked Washington to provide portable
surface-to-air Stinger missiles.
Their reply, "Impossible."
Their only suggestion, "Dig a trench."
The West maintains providing arms risks
provoking Russian aggression.
I said to Western governments, "But if you say
there will be an invasion tomorrow, help us today."
Their answer was still, "No."
- "So, they won't invade?"
- "They might."
"Then what should we do?"
That was the reality.
A Ukrainian negotiator describes how even after the invasion began,
Western countries remained reluctant to do anything that might provoke Russia.
All our Western allies thought
we would be gone in a matter of days.
They said Ukraine would likely not be able to
hold out and defend its sovereignty.
They told us, "We sympathize and weep,
but for now we will watch, we will wait."
Even once our entire territory was under attack,
our allies' attitude towards
Ukraine barely changed.
It was tantamount to saying, "We are afraid
of Russia, so we will give up on Ukraine."
On Day 1 of the invasion, Russian forces attacked from three directions: east, south, and north.
In the south, they invaded from Crimea and advanced some 60 kilometers in one day,
approaching the strategic city of Kherson.
In the east, Ukrainian forces were on high alert, but Russian troops still broke through their lines of defense,
moving to besiege Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city.
In the north, they marched from Belarus toward the capital Kyiv.
Around Kyiv alone, the disparity in numbers was overwhelming,
with 12 times more Russian troops on the ground than Ukrainian forces.
There's more and more...
Some seventeen hours into the invasion, Kyiv was placed under curfew.
Under cover of darkness, the invaders were steadily advancing on the capital.
Twenty-nine hours into the invasion.
Russian tanks finally began to enter Kyiv itself.
The district of Obolon is a residential area in northern Kyiv,
some 9 kilometers from the Presidential Office Building.
Russian forces invading from Belarus had now reached this residential suburb.
A doctor is coming...
This man barely survived.
He'd had no idea the Russian army was closing in on his neighborhood.
I'd gone out to buy bread and water.
They had water at the supermarket, but no bread.
I heard a loud bang and looked up
to see it on top of me.
The night before, my cat was
looking at me the whole time.
She may have sensed something.
It's painful.
I don't even want to remember.
At the hospital he was taken to, the man learned that many other civilians had also been attacked.
With the wounded already being brought to
the hospital, by evening the wards were all full.
I heard from one guy I met in hospital,
that he'd seen men standing near his house...
He casually raised his hand in greeting, saying,
"Glory to Ukraine."
Then one of the men suddenly turned around
and fired his machine gun.
He was hit in the leg and arm.
Civilian casualties were being reported in many parts of the country.
The UN says at least 127 civilians had been killed or wounded by noon on Day 2 of the invasion.
Our house was completely destroyed.
No windows, no doors.
We never imagined this would happen on our land.
But the Russian military denied attacking civilians.
Russian forces have not carried out any missile attacks,
air strikes or shelling of Ukrainian cities.
I want to emphasize that Russian troops
will not attack Ukrainian cities,
and that there is no threat to civilians.
Russia's state-controlled international news channel repeatedly broadcast the government's claims.
Russia's Defense Ministry has made it clear that the military operation is aimed at protecting
the Donbas Republics following their recognition by Moscow.
That is according to the ministry.
It says that civilian areas in Ukraine will not be targeted nor will soldiers who've laid down their arms.
Now, the ministry stresses that there is no danger to the Ukrainian population...
President Zelenskyy's own life was also directly threatened.
The Kremlin was plotting to assassinate him.
According to the information we have,
the enemy designated me as the primary target,
my family as the secondary.
By eliminating the country's leadership,
they are trying to destroy the Ukrainian state.
Senior Ukrainian officials revealed some intriguing details.
Oleksiy Danilov is Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
This is one of the red folders marked as "Top Secret."
Twice a day, everything that happens from morning
till night is recorded and placed on my desk.
He says he got wind of an assassination plot two days before the invasion.
I remember the day, February 22nd,
when that evening's red folder arrived.
I immediately called President Zelenskyy.
It was 7:15pm.
I told him, "Your life is in danger."
From that day on, every time the red folder arrived
I had to update him on the threat status.
As soon as the invasion began on February 24th,
Russian operatives undercover in Kyiv sprang into action.
Guys, look!
There's someone drawing something on the roof.
Numerous markings appeared on buildings.
They're now believed to have been targets for missile strikes, drawn by Russian agents.
There were all kinds of markings.
It was a dangerous situation.
We didn't know who among us was a foreign agent.
We were perpetually on high alert.
Treachery was exposed even at the level of the Supreme Council, Ukraine's parliament.
A lawmaker was placed under house arrest on suspicion of treason for leaking military secrets to Russia,
and was later detained while trying to flee across the border.
I can't talk about it in detail yet,
but there were politicians who had ambitions.
In one of their offices we found
evidence relating to the markings.
An official we spoke to confirmed at least 13 attempts to assassinate the president.
A large number of Russian operatives
were hiding in Kyiv.
The security services, including
the SBU's special forces,
were working frantically to suppress subversive activities
around the Presidential Office Building.
Car bombings and acts of sabotage
were being plotted and carried out.
Russian snipers were also discovered
and detained or eliminated.
Oleksiy Arestovych worked as an analyst and advisor on Russian intelligence activities for the Office of the President.
This is an emergency passage that runs through the basement of the Presidential Office Building.
Arestovych recalls Russian agents attempted to infiltrate the building using this route.
We received intelligence that operatives with
diggers would enter the underground passage.
We were also facing the constant threat
of a direct missile attack on the building.
At one point, a fierce gun battle broke out near the Presidential Office Building.
Watch your back.
Watch it!
The sense of threat hit a further high as an operative was found attempting to fire a rocket launcher
just 500 meters from the Presidential Office Building.
President Zelenskyy decided to evacuate to the bunker under the building,
along with some 100 officials and staff of his administration.
It was clear that morale would be broken
if the president died.
Not just sympathy for him personally,
but great damage to the country's morale as a whole.
Guns, bulletproof vests and
ammunition were distributed.
In a worst-case scenario, everyone in the
Presidential Office assumed they would be killed.
It's now become routine to sleep with machine guns,
helmets, and bulletproof vests on hand.
The First Lady and their two children eventually left Kyiv to avoid Russian assassins.
When I heard that they had to evacuate to the bunker,
I was ordered to leave Kyiv with my children.
We could no longer let anyone know where we were.
Our lives had become about more than just us.
A situation where we might be held hostage
in an attempt to influence national affairs...
is not something the President could be
allowed to face.
There wasn't a chance to discuss any of it.
Not the tough decisions he was having to make,
not any of the challenging things taking place.
My husband didn't speak about any of that.
There simply wasn't time for that.
It's believed Russia was aiming to eliminate President Zelenskyy to pave the way for putting in place a pro-Moscow government.
One of the presidential candidates considered for the envisioned government was former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2014, Yanukovych was forced from office amid mass protests and fled to Russia.
They probably wanted to reinstate Yanukovych.
Russia had already brought him as far as Belarus.
The idea was presumably that on his return,
Yanukovych declares his legitimacy restored.
Ukrainian security forces and troops would be
ordered not to resist President Yanukovych.
He would also declare to the international community that
he has reclaimed his rights as the "legitimate president."
President Putin has shown himself to be obsessed with Ukraine.
About six months before the invasion, he published a paper.
Its central tenet was to assert that Russians and Ukrainians are ethnically the same.
The paper claims the Ukrainian people are being denied of their Russian roots
and are forced to develop a fabricated Ukrainian identity by a government manipulated by Western countries.
It goes on to accuse Kyiv of fanning fear toward Russia to garner attention from the Western world.
In closing, the paper says the relationship between Russia and Ukraine will deepen in the future,
in what may have been a hint at the military invasion to come.
Let me emphasize once again that
for us Ukraine is not just a neighbor.
It is an integral part of our own history,
culture and spiritual space.
Russian fighter jets enter Kyiv's skies
on the first day of the invasion.
Airports in Ukraine are closed.
The streets of Kyiv lie deserted.
People start to take shelter.
I think this is the only place in Kyiv where you can stay safe.
Everywhere else is scary.
Everything feels surreal.
I don't even know how to take it seriously.
This morning I panicked and cried.
I'm worried about my family, my relatives and friends,
and I don't know what to do.
I don't know where to escape or how to act.
Soldiers heading to the battlefield.
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the heroes!
Some residents evacuate to their own cellars.
Here's the entrance to the basement.
I wonder if there's a light?
This is war, I know.
I just want to live in Ukraine
peacefully and safely.
Putin is crazy.
My son is at work and I am alone.
Where should I run?
Oh God...
This father has volunteered for
Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces.
Daddy, what are you going to do?
I can't tell you. Bye-bye.
Mom, where did Dad go?
I want to go with him.
The war has torn countless families apart.
- Daddy went to protect us.
- To war?
- Daddy won't die, because he loves us.
- How?
Daddy loves you and is thinking of you,
so he will definitely come back.
That's a lie, Daddy can't come back.
It's okay, he'll be back.
Males aged 18-60 are restricted
from leaving the country.
- Daddy! I love you
- Daddy does too.
Make sure you and Mom support each other.
I'll be back! OK, time to go.
Protests against Russia's invasion spread
right across the globe.
Protests were even held in Russia.
No to war!
Make way!
Demonstrators are forcefully rounded up.
Stay back!
Shame on you! Stop it!
Stay back!
Let me go!