[6] The 62nd Infantry Division served with distinction during the encirclement of Kiev and distinguished itself with several days of very intense combat near Boryspil.

Overall, the division had suffered 553 dead, 1,027 wounded and 182 missing over the course of September 1941, accounting for a casualty rate of 13% when compared to the divisional strength on 31 August.

[1] The rear area of Army Group South was not yet of elevated operational importance (the focus on the southern sector would increase as the focus of the Wehrmacht's operation was shifted towards the Caucasus in 1942 and 1943), but there were incidents of attacks by partisan groups against German supply lines.

Although the Ukrainian people at large were initially either indifferent towards or even enthusiastic about the end of Soviet rule and the arrival of German forces, small groups of Red Army troops, communist functionaries, and NKVD-trained auxiliaries remained to deal damage against critical points that were of importance to the German war effort.

Until October, overall activity by partisans was low and major singular acts of German military reprisals against local civilian populations were rare.

[Note 1] With the German capture of Kiev in late September, the partisan activity in northern and eastern Ukraine saw an uptick and posed an increased threat to the ever-growing rear area that Army Group South had to control.

The division had little prior experience in anti-partisan warfare before being assigned its task (although it had received and confirmed the Barbarossa decree).

Initially, no immediate major actions were undertaken against civilians even when the division was faced by direct attacks by partisan units.

The local commander at Myrhorod called upon the aid of the 62nd Infantry Division and specifically demanded acts of reprisal against the civilian population.

This incident was treated as a major massacre by the German leadership, and the rear area commander Erich Friderici instructed the 62nd Infantry Division to execute 'deterrent punitive actions against guilty local populations'.

It was also the first order of its kind that didn't specify Russians, Jews and communists as targets of choice (thus leaving non-Jewish non-communist Ukrainians, perceived to be friendly to Germany, safe from reprisals).

The III/190 battalion, which had already carried out the massacre at Myrhorod, reached the village of Baranivka to locate the bodies of the three deceased German soldiers whose deaths had caused this operation.

Three German soldiers were killed and five wounded, and the surviving partisans, whose presence was suspected to have been the one that caused Myrhorod's initial call for aid, fled the area.

The commander of the battalion, Faasch, noted these 49 executions as the fulfillment of an army-ordered reprisal, although it is not clear what order he might have referred to.

One last act of reprisal against the locals was committed on 1 December, when thirty suspected bandits were summarily executed in forest north of Ssalowka.

[1] At this point, the Operations Division of OKH had issued a series of preliminary instructions for the campaigns throughout the year 1942 and had prioritized Army Group South, which 62nd Infantry Division was a part of, for reinforcements over the other army groups as the focus of the war shifted southwards.