The troops of the Central and Southern Clusters had a straight-line distance of 550 km, and the entire Southwestern Army Corps of the Soviet Army was in the triangle between the two German armies.

If you follow the cross-country speed of the mechanized troops, it seems that it will be possible to advance through it in two days, which is not the case.

Because of the advance of the armored forces, there must be perfect logistics support, and there will be bottlenecks such as bridges along the way, so it took them about five days to finally appear in the east of Kyiv.

Even so, it was already quite fast, and during these five days, although the Soviets were aware, for some reason, they did not report it, and they thought it was the Southern Army Group.

As a result, just as the 1st SS Panzer Corps, which was under the command of the 2nd Panzer Group of the German Corps, was about to arrive east of Kiev, the Soviets finally observed the flag of the 1st SS Panzer Corps, and they were suddenly dumbfounded.

Oh no, it's going to be surrounded!

At the beginning in Minsk, because of Pavlov's recklessness, the troops were constantly surrounded and annihilated, but in Ukraine, due to Budyonny's good command, they did not suffer any heavy losses, only part of them in the Battle of Uman.

Since the main forces of the Kiev Military District were still there, it was very difficult for the Germans to encircle and annihilate the defenders of Kiev, and they occupied the Dnieper River as a moat in a vain attempt to block the continued offensive of the German army.

But now, the situation has completely changed, and the Germans, knowing that they only have troops from the Southern Military District, are not enough, and as a result, they have transferred the Central Route Army!

It can be said that this will be the largest encirclement battle of the Great Patriotic War of the USSR and the largest encirclement in the entire history!

This is a huge encirclement, it is simply unbelievable, the entire Kiev Military District of seven or eight hundred thousand troops, all surrounded!

Based on previous experience, it was only a matter of time before it was surrounded and wiped out.

When the news reached the Kremlin, everyone felt that their heads were rumbling, could it be that the Soviets were really going to perish?

Less than a month after the Great Patriotic War began, the Soviet Union had lost a large part of its territory, and the Germans were fighting on Moscow, and in the fortifications west of Moscow, there were hastily conscripted second-line troops and routs.

Now looking at the entire battlefield, only the troops of the Southwestern Military District are still formed into a first-line elite unit, and they are guarding Ukraine and guarding the southwestern gate of the Soviets.

Who would have thought that now they would be surrounded!

No one spoke, the whole conference room was so silent that even a needle could be heard falling on the ground, and after a long time, Stalin finally spoke: "For us, this is really good news, the Germans' most powerful middle route army can rush to our Moscow within a month, and they actually went south!" ”

The leader's vision is really different, at this time, he actually thought that Moscow is finally safe? How ridiculous and pathetic that sounds like this.

It's like a rooster in a cage waiting to be slaughtered, and seeing one companion being captured, the rest breathe a sigh of relief, it's okay, they can live a little longer.

"You say, take advantage of this opportunity to launch a counterattack on Smolensk, how about it?" Stalin said.

No one echoed him, at this time, even the defense line had just been established, and the defense was not enough, so he still had to fight back? Comrade Stalin has something wrong with his head today, right? Insanity?

Stalin, of course, had his own considerations.

Since the Central Route Army is moving south, and your side is empty, why not launch a counterattack and increase confidence through victory?

After the bombing of the oil fields, morale will be low, and the Soviets need a victory to inspire! No matter what the cost, it's worth it.

No one spoke, everyone seemed to be dumb.

"Comrade Stalin, Marshal Timoshenko asked for a breakthrough." Another telegram came.

For a period of time, the Kiev Military District has always wanted to evacuate, but Stalin never approved it, on the contrary, he removed those who insisted on evacuation, including Zhukov and Budyonny.

Now, Timoshenko also wants to break through?

"No, they must hold on, and at the same time prepare to launch a counterattack and eat the army that surrounds them."

Stalin's words convinced those present that something must have gone wrong with his brain, which was not realistic at all!

Just now, at the moment of receiving the news, Stalin did think about letting them break through, but Stalin immediately ruled out this idea of his own.

The oil fields are gone, what to break through? The Soviet Union's crude oil reserves have long been exhausted, and now it is almost as much as it is exploited, and the oil fields were suddenly bombed and occupied, and the remaining oil fields were also quite small, and they could not be used by the Soviet troops in the encirclement at all.

In the absence of fuel, their tank units cannot fight, and without tank units, how to break through? Even if they broke through, how could they fight the German panzers who caught up in the retreat?

Breaking through is death, being surrounded is also death, it is better to be in the encirclement and fight to the death.

At the very least, they can hold off the German army and create an opportunity for their own side to fight a beautiful counterattack here.

No one dared to advise Stalin, if Zhukov was here, he would definitely try his best to stop it, but unfortunately, Stalin had already demoted Zhukov to the reserves.

"Order the Bryansk Front, attack the troops of the Germans to the south from the flank." Stalin continued: "Destroy them in their maneuver! ”

The Middle Route Army is going south, it has to go more than 500 kilometers, crossing the defense area of the Bryansk Front, they must be marching in a long snake formation, at this time, just hit them from the middle, they want to encircle Kyiv, it is not so easy!

(Later generations also said that it was just a rumor that Stalin ordered to hold Kyiv to the death, Stalin did not stand up to his own and explicitly demanded that Kyiv be held at all costs, he only demanded a retreat, they had to stay defensive along the Dnieper River and launch a counterattack against Guderian's armored forces in advance.) And without the approval of the Supreme High Command, Kiev must not be abandoned, and no bridges can be abandoned? ）

Stalin's attitude was firm, and when his order was transmitted back to Kiev, the faces of those present were ugly.

Budyonny has been dismissed, and now in Kiev are Timoshenko and Khrushchev, since the start of the war, Khrushchev has lost a lot of weight, he is also under a lot of pressure, and now, he feels even more hopeless.

"We can't hold Kyiv." Khrushchev, who had always been a sycophant to Stalin, now also complained: "Let's stick here, and let's fight back?" ”

Stalin's head must have entered the water, Khrushchev did not dare to say this sentence, he could only rot in his heart, if he can take the position in the future, he must shake out all these rotten things about Stalin, he is simply a sinner of the Soviets, and he is the one who deserves to be shot the most!