Battle of Lemberg ( 1918 ) Battle of Lemberg ( Lviv , Lwów ) ( in Polish historiography called Defense of Lwów ) begun on 1 November 1918 and lasted till May 1919 and was a six months long conflict between the forces of the West Ukrainian People ' s Republic and local Polish civilian population assisted later by regular Polish Army forces for the control over the city of Lviv ( Lwów , Lemberg ) , in what was then eastern part of Galicia and now is western part of Ukraine . The battle sparked the Polish - Ukrainian War , ultimately won by Poland . Background . The nowadays city of Lviv is called " Lviv " by the Ukrainians , " Lwów " by the Poles , and " Lemberg " by the Austrians and is the largest city in the historical region of eastern Galicia . According to the Austrian census of 1910 , which listed religion and language , 51 % of the city ' s population were Roman Catholics , 28 % Jews , and 19 % belonged to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church . Linguistically , 86 % of the city ' s population used the Polish language and 11 % preferred the Ukrainian language . However , of the 44 administrative divisions of the eastern half of the Austrian province Galicia , Lviv was the only one in which Poles made up a majority of the population . In eastern Galicia , Ukrainians made up approximately 65 % of the population , while Poles made up 22 % of the population and were numerically superior in the cities . As a part of Austrian partition of Poland , Lviv became center of Polish culture and scholarship , as well as of Polish and Ukrainian political activity . Due to the intervention of Archduke Wilhelm of Austria , the Habsburg who adopted a Ukrainian identity and who considered himself a Ukrainian patriot , in October 1918 two regiments consisting of mostly Ukrainian troops were brought into the city , so that most of the Austrian troops stationed in Lviv were ethnic Ukrainians . At the same time , most of Polish units in Austro - Hungarian service were sent to other fronts in order to avoid conflict between the two groups . In addition , the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were stationed in Bukovina and were supposed to join the Ukrainian troops in the city . The Ukrainian National Rada ( a council consisting of all Ukrainian representatives from both houses of the Austrian parliament and from the provincial diets in Galicia and Bukovina ) had planned to declare the West Ukrainian People ' s Republic on November 3 , 1918 but moved the date forward to November 1 due to reports that the Polish liquidation committee was to transfer from Kraków to Lviv . Ukrainian takeover . Between 3 : 30 and 4 : 00 A . M . on November 1 , 1918 Ukrainian soldiers occupied Lviv ' s public utilities and military objectives , raised Ukrainian flag s throughout the city and proclaimed the birth of the new Ukrainian state . The Austrian governor was interned and handed over power to the vice - director of the governorship , Volodymyr Detsykevych , who in turn recognized the supreme authority of the Ukrainian National Rada . The Austrian military commander called on his subordinates to recognize the Rada as well . Colonel Dmytro Vitovsky became commander - in - chief of the Ukrainian forces in Lviv , which numbered 60 officers and 1 , 200 soldiers . Lviv was proclaimed the capital of the West Ukrainian People ' s Republic , which claimed sovereignty over Eastern Galicia , the Carpathians up to the village of Komańcza in the west ( Komancza Republic ) , Carpathian Ruthenia and northern Bukovina . However , a large part of the claimed territory , including the city of Lviv , was also considered Polish by many of the local residents . While the Ukrainian residents enthusiastically supported the proclamation and the city ' s significant Jewish minority remained mostly neutral towards the Ukrainian proclamation , the Polish residents , constituting the majority of Lviv ' s inhabitants , were shocked to find themselves in a proclaimed Ukrainian state . Polish resistance . The Polish forces , initially numbering only about 200 people under Zdzisław Tatar - Trześniowski , organized a small pocket of resistance in a school on the western outskirts of the city , where a group of veterans of the Polish Military Organization put up a fight armed with 64 outdated rifles . After the initial clashes , the defenders were joined by hundreds of volunteers , mostly Scouts , students and youngsters . More than 1000 people joined the Polish ranks on the first day of the war . This enabled the Poles to retake some of the western parts of the city , while most of the city centre remained in Ukrainian hands . Although numerically superior , well - equipped and battle - hardened , Vitovskyi ' s soldiers were mostly villagers and were unaccustomed to city fighting . Furthermore , the elite Ukrainian Sich Riflemen had difficulty breaking into the city from Bukovina due to the intense resistance of Poles in the suburb of Klepariv . Although their enemies were ill - equipped and mostly untrained , they had the advantage of good knowledge of the city , which proved vital in the early days of the defence . In the following day the forces of the defenders reached roughly 6 , 000 men and women , more than 1400 of them gymnasium students and youngsters . Because of their heroism and mass participation in the fights , they are commonly referred to as Lwów Eaglets . The Polish defenders also included a significant component of petty criminals , who , nevertheless , gfor valued for their heroism . On November 3 a few units of the Sich Riflemen broke through and entered the city , and command over the Ukrainian forces was transferred to Col . Hnat Stefaniv . However , a Polish assault on the Main Train Station succeeded and the Poles managed to capture two Ukrainian supply trains , largely negating the Ukrainian superiority in arms and munitions . By November 5 the Ukrainians were pushed out of the western part of the town , yet the Polish assault on the city centre was repulsed and both sides reached a stalemate . With insufficient personnel to man a regular front - line , the front was stable only in the centre , while in other areas only the most important buildings were defended . On November 11 , 1918 , Poland declared her independence and the following day the first units of the regular forces of the Polish Army under Maj . Wacław Stachiewicz entered Przemyśl , only some 70 kilometres away from Lviv . Believing this move to be part of the preparations to break through the Ukrainian siege , Col . Stefaniv prepared a general offensive on the Polish - held western parts of the city . However , despite the heavy fighting that raged between November 13 and November 15 , the Polish defence held out and the Ukrainians were repelled . An armistice was signed on November 18 . Ukrainian withdrawal . After two weeks of heavy fighting within the city , a Polish detachment consisting of 140 officers , 1 , 228 soldiers , and 8 artillery guns under the command of Lt . Colonel Michał Karaszewicz - Tokarzewski of the renascent Polish Army , broke through the Ukrainian siege and arrived at the city . On November 21 the siege was broken and the Ukrainians were repelled from the Lychakiv Cemetery , one of the most important areas of the city . The remaining Ukrainian forces withdrew during the following night , although they continued to surround Lviv from three sides . " Lwów Pogrom " and riots . Chaos during the Polish take - over of the city culminated in a two day - long riot , in which mostly Polish criminals and soldiers started pillaging the city ; over the course of the riots , approximately 340 civilians , 2 / 3 of them Ukrainians and the rest Jews , were murdered . The Jews were accused of cooperating with Ukrainians , and it was claimed that approximately 150 Jews were murdered and 500 Jewish shops and businesses were ransacked in reprisal , although the Morganthau commission reported only 64 Jewish deaths . The Jewish deaths were overstated in some initial reports in the western press and the incident has come to be known as the " Lwów pogrom " . After establishing order within the city , Polish authorities punished a number of people accused of participation in riots . Ukrainian siege And Polish victory . However , heavy fighting for other cities claimed by both Poles and Ukrainians continued , and the battle for Lviv lasted until May 1919 . After their withdrawal in November , Ukrainian forces had laid siege to the city , surrounding it on three sides . The only link between Polish forces in the city and central Poland was the railway line from Przemyśl . Due to its crucial importance for defenders , constant fighting for control of this line was waged , at times including the usage of armored train s . In Lviv itself , Ukrainians started an artillery bombardment of the city on December 22 , preceding the first general offensive , commenced December 27 . This assault , and the following one from February 1919 , were unsuccessful and Polish forces continued to hold the city . On February 24 , 1919 , a short - lived armistice was signed , based on the strong demand of the Entente ' s representatives , who arrived in February , in a futile attempt to reconcile the belligerents and bring them to an agreement . Fighting began again on March 1 , 1919 . Positional skirmishes between entrenched sides lasted until May 1919 , when general a Polish offensive on the Eastern - Galician front forced the Ukrainians , endangered with the risk of encirclement , to pull back from their positions around the city and thus ended the six - month long battle for the control over Lviv . Aftermath . The Polish - Ukrainian fight for Lviv is sometimes referred to as " the last civilized conflict " by Polish historians . Because both sides were too weak to create regular front lines and lacked heavy weapons , the civilian casualties were low and did not exceed 400 . Also , both sides tried to avoid destroying the city ' s facilities and the most important buildings were declared de - militarized zones . Among them were the hospitals , the water works , gas plant and the energy plant . Local ceasefire agreements were signed on a daily basis and there were even numerous situations where both Polish and Ukrainian soldiers played football or partied during cease fires . In his memoirs , Polish Lieutenant ( later Colonel ) Bolesław Szwarcenberg - Czerny noted that during one of the ceasefires Lieutenant Levsky , the Ukrainian commander of an outpost fighting with his unit , got so drunk with the Poles that he overslept and woke up late after the latest ceasefire had ended . Immediately another ceasefire was signed to allow the Ukrainian officer to return to his unit . Because of that , the losses on both sides were small . The Poles lost 439 men and women , 120 of them gymnasium pupils , such as Antoni Petrykiewicz and Jerzy Bitschan , and 76 Lviv University students . Most of them were interred in the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów .