First Winter Campaign

First Winter Campaign
Part of the Soviet–Ukrainian War
Ukrainian fighters before the start of the military winter campaign, December 1919
Date 6 December 1919 — 6 May 1920 Location Ukraine Result Decisive Ukrainian victory The Ukrainians fulfilled the assigned military tasks against the Russians and Bolsheviks Ukraine and Poland together liberated Kyiv from the Bolsheviks in the Kyiv offensive (1920) Treaty of Warsaw (1920)
Belligerents
Ukrainian People’s Republic  Poland	Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR	South Russia
Commanders and leaders
Symon Petliura Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko Volodymyr Salsky Yuriy Tyutyunnyk Marko Bezruchko Petro Dyachenko Andriy Dolud	Mikhail Tukhachevsky Sergey Mezheninov Aleksandr Yegorov Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Budyonny Ieronim Uborevich Iona Yakir	Anton Denikin Nikolay Shilling Yakov Slaschyev
Strength
5,000 Ukrainians[1]	50,000–65,000 Bolsheviks[2]	40,000 Russians[3]
Casualties and losses
681 Ukrainians killed[1]	Unknown	Unknown

The First Winter Campaign (Ukrainian: Перший Зимовий Похід; 6 December 1919 — 6 May 1920) was a campaign by the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Bolsheviks in Ukraine during the Soviet-Ukrainian War. The main task of the Winter Campaign was to maintain the presence of the Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) in Ukrainian territory against the enemies, through guerrilla action. At the end of November 1919, the remnants of the Ukrainian forces were surrounded (Lyubar-Chortoria-Myropil). The Ukrainian Galician Army, due to Petliura's agreement with the Second Polish Republic, was forced to join General Anton Denikin's Russian Volunteer Army after 6 November 1919. The Ukrainian People's Army troops were surrounded by three enemy armies — the Red Army, Russian Volunteer Army and Polish Army (with which reconciliation was achieved at that time); in addition, Ukrainian units suffered from the typhus epidemic. On 6 December 1919, at a military meeting in Nova Chortoria, it was finally decided to carry out a Winter Campaign by units of the UPR and the rear of the Volunteer Army. About 5,000 Ukrainians and 35,000–60,000 Poles took part in the campaign against the Red and Volunteer Armies.^[4] However, the composition of the Ukrainian combat-ready units numbered 2,000 bayonets, 1,000 sabers and 14 guns.