Editing Ukraine (section)

=== World War II ===
<!-- 1939–1945 -->
{{See also|Eastern Front (World War II)|Reichskommissariat Ukraine|The Holocaust in Ukraine}}

Following the [[Invasion of Poland]] in September 1939, [[Nazi Germany|German]] and [[Soviet Army|Soviet]] troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with their Ukrainian population became part of Ukraine. For the first time in history, the nation was united.<ref>Wilson, p. 17</ref><ref>Subtelny, p. 487</ref> Further territorial gains were secured in 1940, when the Ukrainian SSR incorporated the northern and southern districts of [[Bessarabia]], [[Northern Bukovina]], and the [[Hertsa region]] from the territories the USSR [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|forced Romania to cede]], though it handed over the western part of the [[Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]] to the newly created [[Moldavian SSR]]. These territorial gains of the USSR were internationally recognised by the [[Paris Peace Treaties, 1947|Paris peace treaties of 1947]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Treaty of Peace with Romania : February 10, 1947 |url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/usmu011.asp |access-date=2022-09-25 |website=[[Avalon Project]]}}</ref>

[[File:Маршал Советского Союза Герой Советского Союза Семён Константинович Тимошенко.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Marshal [[Semyon Timoshenko]] (born in the [[Budjak]] region) commanded numerous fronts throughout the war, including the [[Southwestern Front (Soviet Union)|Southwestern Front]] east of Kyiv in 1941.]]
[[Wehrmacht|German armies]] [[Operation Barbarossa|invaded the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941, initiating nearly four years of [[total war]]. The [[Axis Powers|Axis]] initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the [[Battle of Kyiv (1941)|battle of Kyiv]], the city was acclaimed as a "[[Hero City (Soviet Union)|Hero City]]", because of its fierce resistance. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (or one-quarter of the [[Soviet Western Front]]) were killed or taken captive there, with many suffering [[German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|severe mistreatment]].<ref>Roberts, p. 102</ref><ref>Boshyk, p. 89</ref> After its conquest, most of the Ukrainian SSR was organised within the [[Reichskommissariat Ukraine]], with the intention of exploiting its resources and eventual German settlement. Some western Ukrainians, who had only joined the Soviet Union in 1939, hailed the Germans as liberators, but that did not last long as the Nazis made little attempt to exploit dissatisfaction with Stalinist policies.<ref name="ww2">{{cite web |title=Ukraine – World War II and its aftermath |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/612921/Ukraine/30080/Bukovina-under-Romanian-rule |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227142736/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/612921/Ukraine/30080/Bukovina-under-Romanian-rule |archive-date=27 February 2010 |access-date=28 December 2007 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, carried out [[Mass graves in the Soviet Union|genocidal policies]] against [[History of the Jews in Ukraine|Jews]], [[OST-Arbeiter|deported millions of people to work in Germany]], and began a depopulation programme to prepare for German colonisation.<ref name="ww2"/> They blockaded the transport of food on the Dnieper River.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Karel C. Berkhoff |first=Karel Cornelis |last=Berkhoff |title=Harvest of despair: life and death in Ukraine under Nazi rule |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=April 2004 |page=164}}</ref>

Although the majority of Ukrainians fought in or alongside the Red Army and [[Soviet partisans|Soviet resistance]],<ref name="worldwars">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\W\O\Worldwars.htm |title=World wars |access-date=20 December 2007 |website=Encyclopedia of Ukraine}}</ref> in Western Ukraine an independent [[Ukrainian Insurgent Army]] movement arose (UPA, 1942). It was created as the armed forces of the underground [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists|Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN).<ref>{{cite book |title=Ukraine: A History |last=Subtelny |first=Orest |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNIs9O3EmtQC&pg=PA106 |page=410 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442609914 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="vedeneyev">{{Cite web |last=Vedeneev |first=Dmitry |date=7 March 2015 |title=Військово-польова жандармерія - спеціальний орган Української повстанської армії |trans-title=Military Field Gendarmerie - special body of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army |url=http://warhistory.ukrlife.org/5_6_02_4.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150307183958/http://warhistory.ukrlife.org/5_6_02_4.htm |archive-date=7 March 2015 |access-date=11 March 2023}}</ref> Both organisations, the OUN and the UPA, supported the goal of an [[Declaration of Ukrainian Independence, 1941|independent Ukrainian state]] on the territory with a Ukrainian ethnic majority. Although this brought conflict with Nazi Germany, at times the [[Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk|Melnyk]] wing of the OUN allied with the Nazi forces. From mid-1943 until the end of the war, the UPA carried out [[Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia|massacres of ethnic Poles]] in the Volhynia and [[Eastern Galicia]] regions, killing around 100,000 Polish civilians, which brought reprisals.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |date=24 February 2010 |title=A Fascist Hero in Democratic Kiev |url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2010/02/24/a-fascist-hero-in-democratic-kiev/ |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=[[The New York Review of Books]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name="IPNconf">{{cite conference |editor1-first=Grzegorz |editor1-last=Motyka |editor2-first=Dariusz |editor2-last=Libionka |editor1-link=Grzegorz Motyka |editor2-link=Dariusz Libionka |url=http://www.zbrodniawolynska.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/5221/Antypolska_Akcja_OUN_UPA.pdf |title=Antypolska Akcja OUN-UPA, 1943–1944, Fakty i Interpretacje |trans-title=Anti-Polish Action OUN-UPA, 1943–1944, Facts and Interpretations |publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|Instytut Pamięci Narodowej]] |year=2002 |location=Warsaw |first=Grzegorz |last=Motyka |chapter=Polska reakcja na działania UPA – skala i przebieg akcji odwetowych |trans-chapter=Polish reaction to the actions of the UPA – the scale and course of retaliation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819090728/http://www.zbrodniawolynska.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/5221/Antypolska_Akcja_OUN_UPA.pdf |archive-date=19 August 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> These organised massacres were an attempt by the OUN to create a homogeneous Ukrainian state without a Polish minority living within its borders, and to prevent the post-war Polish state from asserting its sovereignty over areas that had been part of pre-war Poland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Snyder |first1=Timothy |title=The Causes of Ukrainian-Polish Ethnic Cleansing 1943 |journal=Past & Present |date=2003 |issue=179 |pages=197–234 |doi=10.1093/past/179.1.197 |jstor=3600827 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600827 |issn=0031-2746}}</ref> After the war, the UPA continued to fight the USSR until the 1950s.<ref>Piotrowski pp. 352–354</ref><ref>Weiner pp. 127–237</ref> At the same time, the [[Ukrainian Liberation Army]], another nationalist movement, fought alongside the Nazis.<ref name="Kalb2015">{{cite book |first=Marvin |last=Kalb |date=21 September 2015 |title=Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8157-2665-4 |oclc=1058866168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLe6CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT105}}</ref>

[[File:Ruined Kiev in WWII.jpg|thumb|[[Kyiv]] suffered significant damage during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|World War II]], and was occupied by the [[Wehrmacht|Germans]] from 19 September 1941 until 6 November 1943]]

In total, the number of ethnic Ukrainians who fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army is estimated from 4.5&nbsp;million<ref name="worldwars"/> to 7&nbsp;million;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000020 |title=Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 2 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=Peremoga.gov.ua |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515091804/http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000020 |archive-date=15 May 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Efn|name=fn1|These figures are likely to be much higher, as they do not include Ukrainians of other nationalities or Ukrainian Jews, but only [[ethnic]] Ukrainians, from the Ukrainian SSR.}} half of the [[Soviet Partisans|Pro-Soviet partisan]] guerrilla resistance units, which counted up to 500,000 troops in 1944, were also Ukrainian.<ref>Subtelny, p. 476</ref> Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are unreliable, with figures ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as many as 100,000 fighters.<ref>Magocsi, p. 635</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkPath=pages\U\K\UkrainianInsurgentArmy.htm |title=Ukrainian Insurgent Army |access-date=20 December 2007 |website=Encyclopedia of Ukraine}}</ref>

The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].<ref>Weinberg, p. 264</ref> The [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|total losses]] inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated at 6 million,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?3450000000000000010 |title=Losses of the Ukrainian Nation |page=1 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=Peremoga.gov.ua |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025001902/http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?3450000000000000010 |archive-date=25 October 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="dt-kul-dem-los">{{cite web |script-title=uk:Демографічні втрати України в хх столітті |title=Demohrafichni vtraty Ukrayiny v khkh stolitti |trans-title=Demographic losses of Ukraine in the 20 century |url=https://dt.ua/SOCIUM/demografichni_vtrati_ukrayini_v_hh_stolitti.html |author=Stanislav Kulchytskyi |publisher=[[Dzerkalo Tyzhnia]] |date=1 October 2004 |place=[[Kyiv]], Ukraine |access-date=20 January 2021 |language=uk}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> including an estimated one and a half million Jews killed by the [[Einsatzgruppen]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Smale |first=Alison |date=27 January 2014 |title=Shedding Light on a Vast Toll of Jews Killed Away From the Death Camps |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/world/europe/a-light-on-a-vast-toll-of-jews-killed-away-from-the-death-camps.html |access-date=13 December 2023}}</ref> sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8.6 million Soviet troop losses,<ref name="peremoga7">{{cite web |url=http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000070 |title=Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 7 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=Peremoga.gov.ua |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515100506/http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000070 |archive-date=15 May 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Overy, p. 518</ref><ref name="Krivosheev">Кривошеев Г. Ф., ''Россия и СССР в войнах XX века: потери вооруженных сил. Статистическое исследование'' (Krivosheev G. F., ''Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study'') {{in lang|ru}}</ref> 1.4&nbsp;million were ethnic [[Ukrainians]].<ref name="peremoga7"/><ref name="Krivosheev"/>{{Efn|name=fn1}}{{Efn|This figure excludes [[POW]] deaths.}} The [[Victory Day over Nazism in World War II|Victory Day]] is celebrated as one of eleven Ukrainian national holidays.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-29 |title=Вихідні та святкові дні 2022 року в Україні/Holidays 2022 in Ukraine |url=https://ny.mfa.gov.ua/posolstvo/5259-vihidni-ta-svyatkovi-dni |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Consulate General of Ukraine in New York |language=uk |archive-date=4 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804060355/https://ny.mfa.gov.ua/posolstvo/5259-vihidni-ta-svyatkovi-dni |url-status=dead}}</ref>