"Helps for Ages": Zelensky called a secret weapon that allowed to protect Kiev

In the first days of the full -scale war, the Irpin River flooded the territory of more than 13 thousand hectares, stopping the promotion of the invaders. Water became a secret weapon that helped Ukrainians stop the Russian army in the Kyiv region and protect the capital. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote about it Telegram, referring to the video from the United Project. "Under the pressure of Ukrainian soldiers, Russian invaders were forced to flee from Kyiv region.

This was facilitated by another secret weapon, which has been helping to protect these lands from enemy invasions for several centuries for several centuries," Zelensky wrote. The roller is dedicated to the Irpin River, whose waters were prevented by the Russians to get to Kiev at the beginning of a full -scale invasion.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation focused on the borders with Ukraine 107 battalion-tactical groups, and on February 24, more than 30 thousand soldiers and thousands of armored vehicles departed from Belarus through Chernobyl, expecting to seize the capital of Ukraine in three days.

In order to stop the invaders, the Ukrainian authorities, on the second day of the invasion, blew up the dam on Irpen, and the river that rushed through the damaged gateways flooded about 13,000 hectares of land near the village of Demidov 35 km north of Kiev. According to the guerrillas, the water level increased about a meter per day, so the equipment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation could not move further.

The invaders were looking for a way to cross, which gave Ukrainian troops enough time to regroup, prepare artillery and create two defense borders around Kiev. "Water has become a weapon of defense," said Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov. All bridges through Irpin were destroyed, so the Russians had to erect ponon crossings. At the same time, Russian troops became a relatively easy target for the Armed Forces.

As a result, the Russian army had to retreat from the Kiev region, losing a third of military equipment and a large amount of live force. The authors of the video pointed out that the first defense border, erected at the beginning of the invasion, coincides with the defense line created in 1941 to restrain Nazi Germany troops. Then the USSR prepared many mine fields along the banks of the Irpin River, which helped last two months.

And even earlier, in the times of Kievan Rus, Prince Vladimir the Great built at about the same place "Snake Shafts" - a defense system that protected from nomads from the south and southwest. On March 28, 2022, the Ukrainian army liberated Irpin from the invaders. In honor of the anniversary, the Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny recalled that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation used all kinds of weapons, including aviation, but could not keep the city.