23 February 2022 seemed to drag on forever. It seemed like it couldn't get any worse. All sorts of intelligence agencies had spent the last few weeks trying to give President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the date when the full-scale Russian invasion would "definitely" begin.

These dates rolled by – 16, 19, 22 February – without anything happening. The night of 23-24 February was said to be the next possible date for the invasion’s start. But would it materialise? And if it did, what would it look like? What forces would be deployed? Would the Russians advance openly or continue the proxy attacks under the flags of puppet regimes in occupied eastern Ukraine of the past eight years?

Ukrainska Pravda publishes the first episode of the podcast "24.02: The Invasion Reconstructed", which tells about Russia's preparations for a full-scale invasion, Ukraine's preparations to repel it, and what happened between 00:00 and 05:00 on that day.

Credits:

Authors: Roman Romaniuk and Fedir Popadiuk

Narrator: Ben McBride

Producer: Alina Poliakova

Co-producer and AI-editor: Dmytro Volkovynskyi

Sound producers: Yevhenii Klimuk and Oleh Labynskyi

Assistant: Anna Khivrenko

Translators: Yelyzaveta Khodatska, Elina Beketova and Olya Loza

Editor: Susan McDonald