Ukrainians made a major contribution to the victory over Nazism, becoming one of the victorious nations.

Millions of Ukrainians, with weapons in their hands, fought against Nazism during the war. Ukraine gave the Red Army: 7 Front and Army Commanders, 200 Generals, more than 6 million soldiers, NCO’s and officers.

About 120 thousand Ukrainians met the Nazis in September 1939 as part of the Polish Army. In subsequent years, more than 130 thousand Ukrainians fought in the armies of other anti-Hitler Allies (USA, Canada, France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia). Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fought Nazism in the resistance movement.

As a result of the fighting, more than 700 cities and towns were destroyed in Ukraine along with tens of thousands of villages. Kyiv was 85% destroyed, Kharkiv – 70%, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Poltava suffered great devastation and Ternopil was almost completely destroyed. Nearly 2 million homes were destroyed which resulted in more than 10 million homeless people. Overall, Ukraine’s material losses in the war were 285 billion rubles or $100 billion.

During the Soviet retreat of 1941, 550 industrial companies, property and livestock from thousands of farms was taken from Ukraine along with farms and dozens of academic and educational facilities, cultural centers and historical valuables. Nearly 3.5 million inhabitants left the republic – skilled workers and professionals, scholars, intellectuals who gave their labour and intellectual force in the development of the military and economic potential of the USSR.

In order to gain support in Ukraine, in 1943 Stalin was forced to make certain concessions to Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Fronts were created, the government of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was formed on the basis of the People’s Commissars (Ministries) of Defence and Foreign Affairs.

In recognition of this Ukrainian contribution to the victory over Germany, Ukraine was included in one of the founding states of the United Nations.

As a vital contributor to the Red Army and a key provider of industrial resources in the USSR, Ukraine incurred the largest number of casualties during WWII. The real number of victims during WWII is still not fully known. Some relevant data is still held in Russian archives and is not available for non-Russian researchers. However, of the 41.7 million people living in Ukrainian Soviet Republic before the war, only 27.4 million were alive in Ukraine in 1945. Official data says that at least 8 million Ukrainians lost their lives: 5.5 - 6 million civilians, and more than 2.5 million natives of Ukraine were killed at the front. The data varies between 8 to 14 million killed, however, only 6 million have been identified.

The contribution of Ukrainians to victory in World War II was not just limited to the 7 million Ukrainian soldiers in the Red Army. Hundreds of Ukrainians also served as generals and commanders. The flag of victory over the Reichstag was first raised by a Ukrainian from Sumy, Oleksiy Berest. In addition, about 2.5 million Ukrainians received commendations and were awarded with medals by the Soviet Union.

At the other end of the war, on 2 September 1945, a young general of Ukrainian origin Kuzma Derevyanko signed the act of capitulation by Japan on the American battleship Missouri.” There were more than 300 generals of Ukrainian origin in the Red Army. Their total number was in fact larger.

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukraiinska povstanska armia – UPA) was a partisan force that fought against both the Soviet and German occupations. UPA fought for an independent Ukraine, and the Army was to be the foundation for the army of the Ukrainian state. It was hoped that as the Germans and Soviets fought themselves to exhaustion, an independent Ukraine would be established. UPA was formed in late 1942; it was made up of units of various partisan forces operating in Ukraine.

The UPA soon grew into a well-organized and effective fighting force. It took control of large areas of Volyn, Polissia, and Galicia. Unlike Soviet partisans that fought behind German lines, UPA could not rely on support or supply by any foreign power – it was supported by the local Ukrainian population and was thus a true “peoples’ army.” It is estimated that at its height UPA counted some 80 000 members. In 1944 UPA had about 40 000 fighting troops, organized into four groups – UPA North, South, East and West. Its area of action encompassed one quarter of the territory of Ukraine. 

The Germans committed many units to the battle against UPA; the largest battle between UPA and German forces took place in July-September 1943. Despite the commitment by the Germans of a massive force, UPA managed to take twice as many German casualties as UPA itself lost. As the German army retreated from Ukrainian territory in 1944, UPA staged frequent raids for weapons and materiel. 

Ukraine was also the largest contributor to the industrial resources of the USSR. Before the war, the Ukrainian SSR was a leading center for metals and mining, chemical production, tractors, and agricultural machinery. In 1940, Ukrainian mechanical engineers built 671 line-haul locomotives (73.4 percent of all-Union production) and 16 thousand tons of mining and metallurgical equipment (67.5 percent).

The share of industrial production in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic included 60 percent of coal, 67.6 percent of iron, 35 percent of manganese ore, 64.7 percent of iron, 48.8 percent of steel, 74.5 percent of coke, and 58.8 percent of steel pipes. In addition, Ukraine produced 43 percent of electricity in the Soviet Union. Ukrainian agriculture produced more than 20 percent of bread, 75.5 percent of sugar, 20 percent of meat and 15 percent of butter and oil of the Soviet Union.

The Ukrainian republic was also the leading producer of aircraft, locomotives, turbines and diesel engines for the Soviet navy. The USSR's shipbuilding factories were located in Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kerch, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson. Ukrainian aircraft factories in Dnipropetrovsk , Kharkiv , Kyiv and Kharkiv produced combat aircraft and engines, as well as various units and spare parts for them.

The general demographic loss of Ukraine including those killed, deported, evacuated, the victims of concentration camps, and those who went into exile along with the retreating Nazis add up to at least 14 million people. This is the greatest single loss compared with the losses of other countries and nations in World War II. The USSR lost about 26.6 million lives in World War II. In comparison, the total losses in Germany were about 6 million. In fact, the total Ukrainian losses likely vary between 40 to 44 percent of the total casualties of the USSR.

Russian historians often exclude the number of killed and repressed Ukrainians during the period of 1939-1941. During Stalin's repression in the prewar years and the first months of the war in Galicia and Volyn, thousands of victims were killed, repressed, or deported to Siberia. Reportedly, from 1944 to 1953 between the three Ukrainian oblasts of Galicia, Volyn and Rivne more than 500,000 people were repressed, of whom 134,000 were detained, 153,000 killed and 203,000 deported from Ukraine.

As one of the epicenters of military battles, Ukraine suffered heavily and lost millions of lives; millions more were left disabled. From June 22, 1941, until October 28, 1944, out of 76 strategic and front-line offensive and defensive operations of WWII, 29 were held on Ukrainian territory. The war destroyed 720 Ukrainian cities and towns and 28,000 villages, 250 of which were completely burned down. In addition, in Ukraine more than 16,500 industrial enterprises, 18,000 medical institutions, 33,000 schools, universities, colleges and research institutes, and 33,000 farms and state farms were destroyed as a result of World War II.

The war passed across Ukraine twice, once “from west to east” and then “from east to west.” On its territory were at one time up to 60 percent of the divisions of the Wehrmacht and almost half of the military units of the Red Army. In the latter, there were between six and seven million Ukrainians.

And the Ukrainians showed they knew how to fight. Nearly one in every five Soviet soldiers named a hero of the Soviet Union was a Ukrainian. Of the 115, who were given the award twice, 32 were Ukrainians, and ne Ukrainian – pilot Ivan Kozhedub — received it three times.

Ukrainians did not just fight in the Soviet Army or on the territory of their republic. Between 35,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians served in the Canadian military during the war, approximately 11 percent of that country’s uniformed services. Almost 40,000 Ukrainians took part in the Overlord operation as part of the American military.

Five thousand Ukrainians in France fought in that country’s Foreign Legion, and many rose to leadership positions in the Resistance. Every eighth member of General Vladyslav Ander’s Polish forces was a Ukrainian, even though in most cases, they called and were called Poles.

Saturday Evening Post journalist Edgar Snow in January 1945 wrote that the eastern front during World War II was not so much an example of “Russian glory” but rather “in justice should be recognized in the first instance as a Ukrainian war.”

Russia has claimed the victory for itself and has officially denied the Ukrainian role in the fight against the Nazis.

In December 2010 the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin mentioned in an interview that the Soviet Union could have won the Second World War without Ukrainian forces. “We would definitely have won without Ukraine as a member of USSR, because we are the “winner state.” The war was won because of Russian industrial resources” he claimed. Nowadays, the Kremlin does its best to ignore Ukraine's contribution to victory in WWII.

In fact, the Ukrainian theme sounded loudly and tragically in the apocalyptic symphony of the Second World War. One should not forget about that, however much Russian propagandists and those elsewhere who follow their lead try to obscure the facts of the case.

Ukraine is a nation which gave so much of its blood and resources to defeat the common enemy of the United Nations.

,