Editor’s Note: This article was published by the blog “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on Feb. 22, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to “The Counteroffensive,” click here. In the first hours of his full-scale invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his most elite troops to get behind enemy lines to an airfield right outside Kyiv that was normally used for cargo and flight testing – Antonov Airport in Hostomel. Dozens of helicopters ferried hundreds of Russian airborne soldiers to within striking distance of the capital city’s ce…