In the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian armoured columns pushed east along the Zhytomyr highway towards Kyiv. Makariv, a small settlement of about 10,000 people 36 miles west of Kyiv, sat on their route. The town was wrecked in the month of fighting that ensued.
Roughly 40% of the settlement’s infrastructure was destroyed and the bodies of 132 executed civilians were recovered by April 2022. A 2026 account puts the total death toll as high as 238. Yet Makariv was never taken. It held, with Russian forces only taking control of about 10% of its land, and Kyiv held behind it.
