Qualla: Siege of Chernihiv

Siege of Chernihiv: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LLs, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of 16 March 2022, Russian artillery hit a bread queue in the city center of Chernihiv. At least eighteen people who had stood in line for a loaf were killed, and 26 wounded. By that point, the city had been under siege for three weeks, and there was very little bread left. The Russian army that had crossed into northern Ukraine on 24 February with orders to take Chernihiv quickly and roll south on Kyiv had failed to take it at all. Instead, 30,000 troops sat outside an encircled city of 300,000, dropping FAB-500 bombs on stadiums and dormitories and breadlines while the city refused to fall.

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Image: LLs | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Chernihiv: The First Hours

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leonid Andronov, CC BY 3.0. Before dawn on 24 February, Russian missiles hit the headquarters of Ukraine's 1st Tank Brigade at Honcharivske, just outside Chernihiv. Roughly 30,000 Russian troops crossed the border in three columns, expecting to drive south down the eastern bank of the Dnieper toward Kyiv wi...

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Image: Leonid Andronov | CC BY 3.0

Siege of Chernihiv: Civilians Under Fire

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Viktor Rum Mal by, CC BY-SA 3.0. From late February onward, the bombardment was constant. On 3 March, a Russian airstrike on residential buildings and two schools killed 47 civilians and wounded 18. On 10 March, the Chernihiv Arena - a sports complex - was hit. The Hotel Ukraine was destroyed on 12 March. On 13 ...

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Image: Viktor Rum Mal by | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Chernihiv: The Defenders

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Djohnni, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonel Khoda would later describe a hilltop northeast of the city as the place where Chernihiv was saved. Russian and Ukrainian troops fought across it for days; the Russians dropped FAB-500 bombs that destroyed much of the hill itself before the Ukrainians held. To the south, t...

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Image: Djohnni | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Chernihiv: Why It Mattered

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rr016, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Russian plan for the war's first weeks rested on speed: take Chernihiv on day two, drive south down the Dnieper, link with the Belarus-launched column hitting Kyiv from the northwest, and force a capitulation before the world could organize a response. None of it worked, and ...

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Image: Rr016 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Chernihiv: After

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valerii Sorokin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Russians completed their withdrawal from Chernihiv Oblast on 5 April 2022, leaving behind mined roads and looted villages. National Guard units periodically found Russian stragglers in the weeks that followed - some had changed into civilian clothes and tried to disappear int...

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Image: Valerii Sorokin | CC BY-SA 3.0