Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was a military-political formation that operated on the territory of Ukraine from 1942 to 1956. Its creation was a response to the need to unite the disparate armed units of nationalists under the leadership of the OUN(b), with the aim of establishing a national army for the restoration of an independent Ukrainian state. A key task of the UPA was to prepare the people for a future uprising after the exhaustion of the communist USSR and Nazi Germany in the war.
This is reported by Kyiv24
History and Command of the UPA
The UPA advocated for the creation of an independent, united Ukraine that would encompass all ethnic Ukrainian lands. The beginning of the army’s activities is dated to October 14, 1942, and one of the last battles recorded by historians was the resistance against Soviet troops during the suppression of the anti-communist uprising in Hungary in 1956. Some sources report that individual UPA fighters continued the struggle even until 1967.
Among the leaders of the army were Dmytro Klyachkivsky (May–November 1943), Roman Shukhevych (1944–1950), and Vasyl Kuk (1950–1954). Partisan tactics were decisive for the UPA, and weapons were acquired as trophies in battles with various armies. The ranks of the UPA included not only Ukrainians but also representatives of other nationalities, including Jews and Russians.
UPA in War and in Public Memory
The army fought on two fronts – initially against Nazi Germany and later against Soviet authority. Evidence of the UPA’s anti-German activities can be found in German reports and documents, as well as in the accounts of Soviet partisans. At the same time, Soviet propaganda sought to portray the UPA as a structure that collaborated with the Nazis.
In modern Russia, the UPA has been declared an extremist organization according to a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2014. In Poland, there is also a prevailing negative attitude towards the UPA: in 2016, the parliament of this country recognized the actions of the army’s soldiers in Volhynia as genocide against the Polish population.
In Volhynia, besides the UPA, other armed formations operated, including the “Bulba”-Borovets detachments, “Melnykivtsi”, individual atamans, as well as punitive units of Nazi Germany and Soviet partisans. According to archival data from the SBU, during the conflict in Western Ukraine, 30,327 Poles were killed and 240 settlements were destroyed, while Ukrainian losses amounted to 16,523 individuals and 115 villages. The Institute of National Remembrance of Poland estimates the number of Poles killed due to the actions of the UPA and other nationalist formations at around 100,000 individuals.
Attitudes towards the UPA in Ukraine after gaining independence have been ambiguous: part of society viewed them as freedom fighters, while others saw them as collaborators with Nazi Germany. However, after the Revolution of Dignity, a positive assessment of their activities began to prevail. Since 2015, UPA soldiers have been granted the status of fighters for Ukraine’s independence in the 20th century, and since 2018, the status of combatants.
According to a sociological study conducted in the fall of 2023, for more than two-thirds of Ukrainian citizens, the UPA has become a symbol of the struggle for independence.
“We are witnessing a serious reassessment of the past. The history of the UPA is becoming one of the key elements of our national memory. …For more than 70% of Ukrainians, this history has become an experience and laid the tradition of resistance to the aggressor and defense of independence,” said Yaryna Yasynevych, program director of the Center for Research of the Liberation Movement, at the presentation of the study.