At 12:00 AM on 25 December 1979, Khabarov led his battalion across the border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan as part of the wider Soviet invasion; it was the first unit to cross the border, along with the 154th Separate Spetsnaz Detachment. Khabarov and his men quickly advanced through Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, and Puli Khumri, covering 279 miles in less than eighteen hours in temperatures of -22 °F. They seized the Salang Pass, a strategic location on the way to Kabul,[b] and successfully repelled several counter-attacks over the following three months.