The Battle of Kiev of January 1918 was a Bolshevik military operation of Petrograd and Moscow Red Guard formations directed to capture the capital of Ukraine.

The operation was led by Red Guards commander Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov as part of the Soviet expeditionary force against Kaledin and the Central Council of Ukraine.

During the winter of 1917/18 the revolutionary formations of Russia installed Soviet power in governorates of Kharkiv, Yekaterinoslav (modern day Dnipro), and Poltava, Kyiv was next.

On 27 January 1918 the government of Ukraine announced Kyiv under a siege and appointed Mykhailo Kovenko as the military commandant of the city's defence.

On 9 February General Muravyov took control of the city and instituted a reign of Red terror[1] of brutal reprisals against Kyiv's population[2] that would last twenty days.