The Soviet airborne forces were mostly used as 'foot' infantry during the war. Only a few small airborne drops were carried out in the first desperate days of Operation Barbarossa, in the vicinity of Kiev, Odessa, and the Kerch peninsula. The two significant airborne operations of the war were the Vyazma operation of February–March 1942, involving 4th Airborne Corps, and the &lt;a href="Battle%20of%20the%20Dnieper"&gt;Dnepr/Kiev operation&lt;/a&gt; of September 1943, involving a temporary corps formation consisting of 1st, 3rd, and 5th Airborne Brigades.