The Battle of Boryspil happened on 2 June 1920, near the town of

Boryspil Boryspil ( uk, Бориспіль, translit. ''Boryspil'') is a city and the administrative center of Boryspil Raion in Kyiv Oblast (region) in northern (central) Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Boryspil urban hromada, one of the hromada ...

near

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. It was fought between the Polish and Russian forces during the Polish-Bolshevik War and was a part of the Polish counter-assault after the ill-fated Russian offensive of 27 May.

History

After capturing

in early May, the Polish and Ukrainian forces of 2nd and 3rd Armies were centered on Kyiv, along the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

river and a small bridgehead on the eastern side of the river. After the assault of the Budyonny's

1st Cavalry Army __NOTOC__ The 1st Cavalry Army (russian: Первая конная армия, Pervaya konnaya armiya) was a prominent Red Army military formation. It was also known as "Budyonny's Cavalry Army" or simply as ''Konarmia'' (Кона́рмия, "Horse ...

has been repelled, the Polish commander

Edward Rydz-Śmigły Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły (11 March 1886 – 2 December 1941; nom de guerre ''Śmigły, Tarłowski, Adam Zawisza''), also called Edward Śmigły-Rydz, was a Polish politician, statesman, Marshal of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of Poland's ...

feared that the Russian forces of the 12th Army might want to assault the bridgehead directly. To prevent this and disrupt the Russian preparations, an assault group was created in Kyiv, composed of merely two battalions of infantry from the elite 1st Legions Infantry Regiment. The Polish units were loaded onto river barges in Kyiv and shipped to the village of Vytachiv on the other side. In the early morning of 2 June, the Poles assaulted the town of Boryspil, where the Soviet 58th Rifle Division was preparing for an assault. Although numerically inferior, the Polish forces managed to take the enemy by surprise and, after a short skirmish, the Russians withdrew eastwards. After capturing the Russian supply dumps, the Poles returned to Kyiv. Although the losses on both sides were low, the Polish assault managed to disrupt the preparations of the Yakir's Group for the assault of the bridgehead.

References

1920 in Poland 1920 in Ukraine

History of Kyiv Oblast June 1920 events {{ukraine-hist-stub