Overview
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) emerged in 1942–43 as the armed wing of the OUN‑B, formed during the German occupation of Ukraine. Its leadership sought an independent Ukrainian state and rejected subordination to either Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. The UPA’s early strength came from thousands of trained men who deserted the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in 1943 after receiving secret OUN‑B orders to leave with their weapons. This influx—around 10,000 armed and experienced recruits—gave the UPA the organisational backbone it needed to operate as a large guerrilla force.
The UPA fought on multiple fronts. It clashed with German occupation forces, resisted Soviet partisans, and later engaged the Red Army and NKVD as Soviet control returned. It also fought Polish underground formations and carried out violent campaigns against Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, actions that remain among the most disputed and painful aspects of its legacy. The UPA attempted to build underground administrative structures, intelligence networks, and medical services, functioning as a clandestine proto‑state in areas where neither German nor Soviet authority was fully established.
After 1944, the UPA’s primary enemy became the Soviet state. Despite being heavily outnumbered and lacking external support, it continued armed resistance for nearly a decade. NKVD infiltration, mass arrests, and deportations gradually eroded its capacity. By the early 1950s, the movement had been effectively destroyed, though isolated fighters survived into the mid‑1950s.
The UPA remains a deeply contested historical subject. For some, it represents a nationalist struggle for independence; for others, it is inseparable from wartime atrocities and ethnic violence. Its history is shaped by the complexities of occupation, nationalism, and the brutal conditions of the Eastern Front.
Ukraine's Shadow Army
War in the Borderlands
A UPA propaganda poster. The OUN/UPA's formal greeting is written in Ukrainian on two of horizontal lines Glory to Ukraine – Glory to (her) Heroes. The soldier is standing on the banners of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Photo of an UPA leaflet briefly explaining the purpose of their uprising. Text on leaflet says: "What Ukrainian insurgents fighting for? Not for Stalin, not for Suvorov, not for Hitler the insane. For Ukraine, for boundless. From Yoska, from Fritz independent!!
Christmas card made and distributed by the UPA, 1945.
Ukrainian Insurgent Army, September 1944 Instruction abstract. Text in Ukrainian: "Jewish question" – "No actions against Jews to be taken. Jewish issue is no longer a problem (only few of them remain). This does not apply to those who stand out against us actively."