Soviet forces initially held out on the vital railhead to Kyiv with heavy artillery. When the Soviet forces where forced to retreat northeast to Kyiv in early August 1941, the 6th Army moved in. Korosten was occupied by the German Army from 7 August 1941 to 28 December 1943 (it was briefly captured by 60th Army forces during the Kyiv offensive on 17 November 1943, but retreated after a strong German counterattack). It was during the occupation that nationalists, Liked to OUN-Bandera faction of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and working under the auspices of German Security Police and the "Einsatzgruppen" compiled lists of targets for the branch offices of the KdS and assisted with the roundups of Jewish families and other ‘Non-desirables’. In Korosten nationalists carried out the killings by themselves, same as reported in Sokal. Other killings in central Ukraine soon followed. On 28 December 1943, during the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive the city was liberated by units of the 13th Army of Lieutenant General Pukhov. During the war Korosten was once again completely destroyed.