Ukraiinska Nazionalna Armija
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| guide | |||
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| Commander in Chief : | Pavlo Schandruk | ||
| Military strength | |||
| Active soldiers: | 50,000 | ||
| Conscription: | |||
| Eligibility for military service: | |||
| history | |||
| Founding: | March 17, 1945 | ||
| Resolution: | May 7, 1945 | ||
The Ukrainian National Army , or UNA for short ( Ukrainian Українська Національна Армія ) was an association of Ukrainian volunteers who fought on the German side against the Soviet Union and for an independent Ukraine during World War II . It should not be confused with the Ukrainian People's Army , which is also often referred to as the UNA.
history
Shortly before the end of the war, some officers and politicians in the German Reich recognized the need to increasingly involve foreign troops in the fight on the Eastern Front. Together with the Liberation Council of the Peoples of Russia, the Russian Liberation Army under General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was set up. Due to protests, however, no associations of non-Russian origin were placed under him. UNA soldiers and officers had little to bad relationships with that same army.
Alfred Rosenberg approved the formation of the Ukrainian National Council at the end of 1944 . On March 12, 1945, this council agreed to found a new association from remaining soldiers of the Ukrainian Liberation Army , police forces, units of the air force, flak helpers and the Galicia division . General Pavlo Schandruk became the commander of the 50,000-strong UNA . The new soldiers were sworn in instead of Hitler , with the Germans concession to the freedom of Ukraine. On May 10, 1945, the Ukrainian National Army surrendered to American-British troops at Tamsweg and Radstadt in what is now Austria .
After the war
After the surrender, General Schandruk demanded a meeting with the general of the Polish forces in exile, Wladyslaw Anders, in London. After the meeting, General Anders advocated the non-extradition of Ukrainian soldiers to the Soviet Union with his British and American allies , and certified that all members came from Galicia . In 1947 UNA soldiers left the internment camps in northern Italy. In 1965 General Schandruk was awarded the Polish Order of Virtuti Militari by General Anders for his achievements during the War of Defense in 1939 . This approach was sharply criticized in the Soviet Union as well as in the People's Republic of Poland .
Many former soldiers left Italy for Germany. From there most of them moved to America , Great Britain and Australia , where they founded veterans' associations that are still in existence today. In honor of the fallen, numerous monuments were erected in Styria, the last operational area of the army.
Web links
- Ukrainian National Army in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine (English)