Ukrainian State

Flag of Ukraine

Ukraine, officially the Ukrainian State, is one of the largest countries in mainland Europe laying on its eastern side. It is an absolute monarchy after the events of the last decade after rampant instability, a near civil war, and the Russian Invasion. Ukraine lost over half of its territory after the Second Weltkrieg as the Russian defenses were on the Dneiper, thus cutting the nation in two. This has prompted the movement of the capital from Kyiv witch now lays in Russian hands. Ukraine has been heavily weakened by this after losing much of its agricultural production. The Ukrainian state had formed in the fire of the Russian Civil War and has remained a proud indepdent country ever since. It was the most powerful of the German puppets and was infact so powerful that it was able to challenge Germany several times. Ukraine can not be called a victor of the Second Weltkreig after having its most productive regions cut out. However Ukraine still has a large agriculutral sector and plentiful oil so the country may be able to recover economically. And events in Russia may allow Ukraine to regain some of its territory as Russia begins to collapse internally.

## History

In the last decade Ukraine was the most unstable out of all of the Puppets of Germany. This was due to Germany's reliance on Ukraine for food stuffs as it was far to dangerous to try and import with the Union of Britan blocking imports from the north. Thus the Germans began to use Ukraine as a bread basket putting great strain on Ukraine's economy. This strain would finally break in 1936 with the Black Monday crisis witch threw the country off the edge due to its economic reliance on Mitteleuropa. Ukraine soon fell pray to nationalistic and socialist tendencies and the Hetmanete was beginning to tear itself apart at the seams. Negotiations broke down and a small scale insurgency broke out all across Ukraine trying to force its independence. However Germany could not afford to let Ukraine fall and sent in its own forces along with loyalists to the government to crush the Insurgency. With this the Hetaman declared the end of the Parliament and seized full control over the government. This could not have come at a better time however as only a few years later tensions were rising. When Russia entered into the Second Weltkrieg the Ukrainians were quick to send their forces from Germany to their border witch stopped massive Russian gains in the early days of the war. Despite this the Russians had enough manpower to force their way through Ukrainian lines and they took the Donbas, Kharkiv, and Crimea within the first year. The Ukrainians had lost so much to the point where it looked like they would break with them not being able to supply their forces with enough manpower to sustain a defence. In response to this Ukraine when onto the west of the Dnieper where they set up defensive lines to hold off until reinforcements. This would work for 1941 and with the entry of the Danubian Federation the Ukrainians were able to hold the line over much of the country. All except for the South where Russian forces broke through around Kherson and began to siege Odessa. Odessa was ruined as over a year were spent trying to take the city from 1941-1942. However as Russian casualties mounted they were not able to sustain their defense in depth and the Ukrainian-Austrian joint offensive cut off the Russians sieging Odessa. This was a crippling blow to the offensive capabilities of the Russians who switched to the defensive for the remainder of the war. However Ukraine was unable to force the Russians out of Kyiv or off of the left bank. Thus when it came time for the treaty of Minsk the Ukrainians were thrown under the buss being cut across the river. This meant that Ukraine's old capital now lay outside of its borders and with Odessa in ruins the capital was moved to Kryvyi Rih witch had not been captured during the war. Ukraine was in ruins with much of its land having been bombed during the war. And now with almost none of its agricultural or industrial base still remaining the use of Ukraine to the Reichspakt has been minimal. However Ukraine is one of the only nations in the Reichspakt to have a path to the Mediterranean, albeit they have to get permission from the Ottomans. However Ukraine still does have a lot of oil and Natural gas witch it is now exporting and it looks like Ukraine may in fact become an oil state.

## Military

The Military of Ukraine took quite a beating during the Second Weltkrieg and has taken massive casualties. Ukraine is looking to repair its military and get it ready for another confrontation with Russia should the need arise. Ukraine's flat lands however have given a good opportunity in terms of testing out new military equipment for the Reichspakt with specifically new areoplanes being looked at for the time being.

### Army

The Ukrainian army is its most powerful wing being stronger still than any other German puppet. However the army of Ukraine took so many casualties during the war that most divisions have still not recovered in terms of manpower with most being around 55% strength compared to on paper. This has mostly come from Ukraine utilizing its remaining manpower for rebuilding its infrastructure and industry witch are required before any of it can be sent towards the army. Despite this if Ukraine does not get its army up and running soon then Ukraine may not be able to take advantage of the collapsing Russia.

### Navy

The Ukrainian Navy is more or less a publicity stunt compared to the Army and is only comprised of a few destroyers and submarines that were able to escape to Germany after Crimea was seized. The Ukrainians will need to construct more if the Reichspakt doesn't want to have to rely on Bulgaria for dominance over the Black sea, however Ukraine's navy will likely be more situated to fight the Black Sea fleet instead of the Bulgarians witch is more aimed towards keeping the Dardanelles open.

### Air Force

The Ukrainian Air Force is not as small as it first seems having been massively built up during the war. In fact the Air Force was crucial in keeping Russian bombers away from Western Ukraine which has mostly remained undamaged from the Weltkreig. And also with Ukraine being the perfect testing ground for new X-Planes Ukraine may end up getting some of the run-off from German testing.