Ukrainian War of Independence

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Ukrainian War of Independence
Part of the Eastern Front of World War I, the Polish–Soviet War, and the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War
(clockwise from top left): Members of the Yuzovka (Donetsk) First District Executive Committee in 1917; Ukrainian People's Republic soldiers swearing an oath in 1919; Anarchist Black Army command in Berdyansk in 1919; Polish troops in Kyiv in 1920.
Date 7 March 1917 – 17 November 1921 (4 years, 8 months, 1 week and 3 days) Location Ukraine Result Bolshevik victory Territorial changes Most of Ukraine is conquered by the Red Army, resulting in the creation of the Ukrainian SSR, Poland seizes Western Ukraine.
Belligerents
Ukrainian People's Republic  West Ukrainian People's Republic  Germany  Poland	Russian SFSR  UNRR  URR  Ukrainian SSR  Makhnovshchina	Ukrainian State  South Russia  Germany  Poland  Romania
Commanders and leaders
Mykhailo Hrushevsky Symon Petliura Yevhen Petrushevych Mykhailo Pavlenko Oleksander Hrekov	Stanisław Kosior Grigory Petrovsky Christian Rakovsky Alexander Yegorov Mikhail Frunze Nestor Makhno	Pavlo Skoropadskyi Anton Denikin Pyotr Wrangel H. von Eichhorn † Józef Piłsudski Ernest Broșteanu
Strength
Ukrainian People's Army: 100,000 (peak) Ukrainian Galician Army: 70,000 (peak)	Red Army  Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine: 103,000 (peak)	Volunteer Army: 40,000 (peak) German Army Polish Army: 190,000 (peak)  Royal Romanian Army: 4,000 (peak)

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The Ukrainian War of Independence, also referred to as the Ukrainian–Soviet War in Ukraine, lasted from March 1917 to November 1921. It saw the establishment and development of an independent Ukrainian republic, most of which was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of 1922–1991.

The war was fought between different governmental, political and military forces. Belligerents included Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, the forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the White Russian Volunteer Army, and Second Polish Republic forces. They struggled for control of Ukraine after the February Revolution of 1917.

The war ensued soon after the October Revolution, when the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin dispatched the Antonov's expeditionary group to Ukraine and Southern Russia.

The war resulted in the absorption of Ukrainian populations into the newly created Soviet Union and the Second Polish Republic. Soviet historical tradition viewed the Bolshevik victory as the liberation of Ukraine from occupation by the armies of Western and Central Europe, including that of Poland. Modern Ukrainian historians consider it a failed war of independence by the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Bolsheviks. The conflict can be viewed within the framework of the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, as well as the closing stage of the Eastern Front of World War I.