Ukrainian National Army (UNA) was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Ukrainian military group, created on March 17, 1945 in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, and subordinate to

Ukrainian National Committee The Ukrainian National Committee ( uk, Український Національний Комітет) was a Ukrainian political structure created under the leadership of Pavlo Shandruk, on March 17 (or March 12), 1945 in Weimar, Nazi Germany, n ...

. The army, formed on April 15, 1945, and commanded by General

Pavlo Shandruk Pavlo Feofanovich Shandruk ( uk, Павло Шандрук, pl, Pawło Szandruk, February 28, 1889 in Volhynia – February 15, 1979 in Trenton, New Jersey) was a general in the army of the Ukrainian National Republic, a colonel of the ...

, consisted of the following units: * 1. UNA Division formed from the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian); * 2. UNA Division being organized into two brigades – the Anti-Tank Brigade ''Вільна Україна'' ("Free Ukraine") and a second brigade – from remnants of the

Ukrainian Liberation Army german: Ukrainische Befreiungsarmee , image = Ukrainian Liberation Army (УВВ).jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ukrainian Liberation Army oath to Adolf Hitler , dates = 10 February 1943 – 15 April 1945 , disbanded = , country = Rei ...

and other Ukrainian units, led by General

Petro Dyachenko Petro Havrylovych Dyachenko (January 30, 1895 - April 23, 1965) was Ukrainian Military Leader, commander of the Black Zaporozhets, the 2nd division of the Ukrainian National Army, the anti-tank brigade "Free Ukraine". Military ranks — colon ...

; * special Gruppe B led by General Taras Bulba-Borovets;АРМІЯ БЕЗ ДЕРЖАВИ
, by Taras Bulba-Borovets 1952 revised on 1981. * Ukrainian Free Cossacks led by Colonel Tereshchenko; * 1. Reserve Brigade led by Colonel Hudyma; * 2. Reserve Brigade led by Colonel Malets. Plans were made regarding the inclusion of the Ukrainian Freedom Army (120,000 soldiers),

Kuban Cossacks Kuban Cossacks (russian: кубанские казаки, ''kubanskiye kаzaki''; uk, кубанські козаки, ''kubanski kozaky''), or Kubanians (russian: кубанцы, ; uk, кубанці, ), are Cossacks who live in the Kuban r ...

and Georgian military divisions. The primary purpose of creation of the Ukrainian National Army was to integrate all the Ukrainian units fighting the Soviets under a single command. The intended size of the army, encompassing all the Ukrainian units subordinate to

Oberkommando des Heeres The (; abbreviated OKH) was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler's rearmament of Germany. OKH was ''de facto'' the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat at ...

was 220,000. However within the two months left till the end of the war, Shandruk was able to gather about 50,000 soldiers. The Monument of the SS-Galicia in Lviv Ukraine

The Monument of the SS-Galicia in Lviv Ukraine

In reality, Shandruk was able to command only the 1. UNA Division and elements of the 2. UNA Division. On May 7, under his influence, the division – located in western Austria by this time, after slowly moving from

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

(February 1945) – withdrew further from

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

forces. The Army now split into several groups, with one heading towards the Italian border and surrendering to the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

15th Army Group The 15th Army Group was an Army Group in World War II, composed of the British Eighth and the U.S. Fifth Armies, which apart from troops from the British Empire and U.S.A., also had whole units from other allied countries/regions; like two of ...

, while others moved toward the German and Swiss borders and surrendered to the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

6th Army Group The 6th United States Army Group was an Allied Army Group that fought in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Made up of field armies from both the United States Army and the French Army, it fought in France, Germany, Aus ...

. The UNA soldiers were interned in northern Italy, in the area controlled by

Polish II Corps The Polish II Corps ( pl, Drugi Korpus Wojska Polskiego), 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and fought wit ...

forces. After the capitulation, Shandruk asked for a meeting with Polish general

Władysław Anders ) , birth_name = Władysław Albert Anders , birth_date = , birth_place = Krośniewice-Błonie, Warsaw Governorate, Congress Poland, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = London, England, United Kingdom , serviceyears ...

in London, and asked him to protect the army against the deportation to

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. Despite the Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect Ukrainian soldiers as the former citizens of the

Second Republic of Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First Worl ...

. Shandruk and the bulk of his forces managed to remain in the West, with many of the former UNA soldiers joining the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...

. Other groups, splintered, either surrendered to the Soviet or the Western Allies, facing repatriation, with several hundred interned in Switzerland. The UNA had a bad relationship with general Andrei Vlasov's

Russian Liberation Army The Russian Liberation Army; russian: Русская освободительная армия, ', abbreviated as (), also known as the Vlasov army after its commander Andrey Vlasov, was a collaborationist formation, primarily composed of Rus ...

(KONR) and was never subordinated to it.

References

Further reading