# Zaluzhnyi commands Ukraine's armed forces during the opening phase of the full-scale invasion

Date: 2022

On 24 February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, [Valerii Zaluzhnyi](/people/valerii-zaluzhnyi) was serving as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces prevented Russian troops from taking Kyiv and later conducted major operations that recovered territory around Kharkiv and retook Kherson. The command responsibility is real, but the outcomes were collective: field commanders, troops, intelligence, civilian authorities, foreign partners and Ukrainian society all contributed. The record therefore identifies Zaluzhnyi's senior military role at the start of the invasion without assigning him a fabricated percentage of credit for battlefield outcomes or treating later successes and failures as the work of one person.

## Sources

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerii_Zaluzhnyi
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/zaluzhnyi-commands-ukraine-defense-2022