Ukrainian Insurgent Army

> We were born in a great hour. From the fires of war, and the flames of gunshots. We were nurtured by the pain of losing Ukraine. We were fed by anger and malice to our enemies.
>
> March of Ukrainian Nationalists, Anthem of the **Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists** and the **Ukrainian Insurgent Army**

### Leaders

* Vasyl Ivakhiv
* Dmytro Klyachkivsky
* Roman Shukhevych

### Active Regions

Volhynia
Polesia
Galicia
Podilia
Carpathia
Transnistria

### Ideology

Ukrainian ultranationalism
Anti-Polonism
Anti-communism
Anti-Russian sentiment
Anti-semitism
Anti-German sentiment
Anti-fascism (disputed)
Anti-national socialism

### Allies

Greater Germanic Reich (1941–1945)
* Reichskommissariat Ukraine
* General Government

### Opponents

Soviet Union (1941-1945)
* Ukrainian SSR
* Former Soviet Union

Polish Underground State (1941-1945)
Greater Germanic Reich (1945-1959)

* Reichskommissariat Ukraine
* General Government

### Wars

Second World War
Operation Steppe (also called Ukrainian War of Resistance)

The **Ukrainian Insurgent Army** (Ukrainian: Українська повстанська армія, **УПА**; Romanized: Ukrayins'ka Povstans'ka Armiia, **UPA**) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary formation founded by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on October 14, 1942, the feast day of the Intercession of the Theotokos. The insurgent army arose out of the pre-existing military formations of the OUN - Bandera faction (abbreviated as OUN-B) and several other nationalist paramilitary formations. Although nominally under the OUN as a whole, the military leadership belonged almost exclusively to the OUN-B.

During the events of the Second World War, the UPA gradually developed into a guerrilla army with goals dedicated towards fostering a nationalist revolution to expel foreign powers from the Ukrainian nation. Declassified documents by the German Archives show that the UPA's parent organization, the OUN-B, planned to create a Ukrainian nationalist dictatorship with free trade, a mixed economy, and a state which provided social services and labour protections. In its early years, the UPA engaged in extensive warfare against the Soviet Union, its successor states, and the Polish resistance movements. In this regard, their main ally was the German occupation forces, in spite of being in direct conflict with German forces at times. However, by late 1943, with the Soviet Union ceasing to exist, and the Eastern Front having been de facto won by the Reich, the UPA began demanding the establishment of a Ukrainian national state in Germany's sphere. All of these proposals were rejected by the Reich, and the UPA, along with other collaborator factions, were ordered to stand down by the end of the war in 1945. The UPA, along with its parent organization, the OUN as a whole, refused these orders.

From 1945 onwards, the UPA waged a war of resistance against Germany. On 23 June 1947, 30 years after the declaration of the First Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council declared Ukraine's autonomy, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, led by Stepan Bandera, announced the independence of Ukraine from Germany, officially declaring the UPA and the entirety of the anti-German Ukrainian armed insurgent front's against the Reich. During this time, the UPA forcefully absorbed and subordinated other militant groups such as the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army led by Taras Bulba-Borovets. These attempts to unite all Ukrainian resistance groups alarmed the leaders of Germany and Reichskommissariat Ukraine, who arrested and/or assassinated most of Ukraine's national leadership. By the 1950s, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army ceased to exist as an effective fighting force. In 1959, underground leaders Stepan Bandera, political head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was assassinated by the SS, and Dmytro Klyachkivsky, supreme commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was killed in a firefight with the Heer. The death of the OUN-B and UPA's top leadership meant the de facto dissolution of these two organizations.

Although the UPA is officially "dead", there have been increased sightings and reports of the continued existence of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within Germany's borders. Many of these claims have been officially dismissed, with the current Reichskommissar of Ukraine Hubert Meyer, dismissing these claims as utterly false.