The day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia aimed to seize Antonov airport with a rapid air assault. The object with the operation was to use the airport as an airbridge and staging area in preparation of the upcoming assault on Kyiv. The case is of interest for research because of how Russia, despite evident superiority to Ukraine and optimal conditions did not manage to achieve their operative objective of the operation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding on how to gain operative success by analyzing the battle of Antonov airport, by means of Robert Leonhards Combined Arms Theory.
The conclusion of this study shows that even though Ukraine´s deployment of combined arms was effective, there were two other significant causes for this as well. Russia´s inability to deploy their own troops in an efficient manner and their failure to operate in a favorable way while in control of the airport. Therefore, it is difficult to determine what had the greatest impact on the outcome. Furthermore, it shows the importance of deploying your branches of service in relation to your opponent´s troops to be successful at the tactical level.