Battle of Kruty

Battle of Kruty
	Part of the Ukrainian–Soviet War
	; Scheme of the Battle of Kruty.
Date	January 29 or 30, 1918
Location	near Kruty, Ukraine 51°4′46.32″N 32°9′33.48″E / 51.0795333°N 32.1593000°E
Result	Tactical Bolshevik victory Massacre of students who defended the station from the Bolshevik offensive; ; Strategic Ukrainian victory Capture of Kiev by Russian forces delayed; Conclusion of the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; ;
Belligerents
Ukraine	Soviet Russia
Commanders and leaders
Averkii Honcharenko	Mikhail Muravyov; Pavel Yegorov; Reinholds Bērziņš
Units involved
Ukrainian People's Army Cadet sotnia of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Youth School; Student rifle kurin; Company-sized unit of Free Cossacks; ;	Group of forces in battle with the counterrevolution in the South of Russia
Strength
Total: 600 soldiers 500 students ; 2 armored trains ; ~100 Cossacks	Total: 3,000-4,000 soldiers; 1,000 men (strike force); 2,000+ men (reserves) ; 2 armored trains ; artillery battery
Casualties and losses
Less than 260 ; 36 prisoners (28 later executed)	Heavy, about 300

The Battle of Kruty (Ukrainian: Бій під Крутами, romanized: Bii pid Krutamy) took place on January 29 or 30, 1918, near Kruty railway station (today the village of Pamiatne, Nizhyn Raion, Chernihiv Oblast), about 130 kilometres (81 miles) northeast of Kiev, Ukraine, which at the time was part of Nizhyn Povit of Chernihiv Governorate.

The battle involved a numerically inferior force composed of military cadets and parts of the Ukrainian People's Army, which managed to postpone the Bolshevik advance on Kyiv at the cost of huge losses in its own ranks. This allowed the Ukrainian delegation to win time at the peace negotiations in Brest. The battle became a moral symbol of sacrifice brought by Ukrainian youth in defence of their country.