Heroic city of Chernihiv | Daria Bura

It takes only two hours to drive from Chernihiv to Kyiv, and an hour  — to the border, so the defense of the city in the full-scale war of 2022 was of strategic importance for the protection of the capital. "If we hadn’t held Chernihiv, we could have lost Kyiv", the military explained. For 38 days, the city was subjected to artillery shelling and airstrikes; it was practically blockaded, without communication and connection. Its outskirts are broken down to bricks.

But it was here that Russian tanks were "driving in reverse" and burning with "Molotov cocktails". Chernihiv became a city of heroes; and its defense, like that of the entire Region, was based on four components. Even on five — the Desna River also helped out.

This book is about those who held the city and won it from the Russian occupiers