The landing was made at night, and the paratroopers' presence in the German rear helped the attacks of the 33rd Army and 1st Guards Cavalry Corps.

At the end of January, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps, under the command of Pavel Alexeyevich Belov, broke through the German lines.

To prevent a German retreat from the planned encirclement, Stavka decided to land troops in the Vyazma area to cut the Vyazma-Smolensk railroads and highways.

Due to a shortage of transport planes, the paratroop drops were made in an alternating order, starting with 8th Airborne Brigade.

[3] The landing itself was unsuccessful, as a large part of the supplies were lost, and the airborne troops were scattered over a wide area in winter weather conditions.

Stavka decided to drop the main forces of the 4th Airborne Corps west of Yukhnov with the task of cutting the Warsaw highway and linking up with parts of the 50th Army.

On 23 February, the 4th Airborne Corps commander Major General Alexei Levashev was killed, when his transport was shot down.

The united forces seized the area south of Vyazma and held it until the end of May, pinning down a few German divisions.