December 1917–April 1918 The Bolsheviks, numbering around 30,000 and composed of Russian army regulars stationed at the front, a number of garrisoned units, and
Red Guard detachments composed of laborers from
Kharkov Governorate and the Donbass, began by advancing from the northeast led by
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko and
Mikhail Muravyov. The Ukrainian forces at the time of the invasion consisted of about 15,000 made up from volunteer detachments and several battalions of the
Free Cossacks and the
Sich Riflemen. The invasion of pro-Soviet forces from Russia was accompanied by uprisings initiated in Ukraine by the local Bolsheviks in the developed cities throughout the territory of
left-bank Ukraine as well as
right-bank Ukraine. The
Bolsheviks, led by
Yevgenia Bosch, conducted a successful uprising in
Vinnytsia sometime in December 1917. They took charge of the 2nd Guard Corps and moved towards Kiev to help the Bolsheviks in the city.
Pavlo Skoropadsky with a regiment of the
Free Cossacks managed to
stop them near Zhmerynka, disarm them, and deport them to Russia. The other Bolshevik forces captured
Kharkov (December 26),
Yekaterinoslav (January 9),
Aleksandrovsk (January 15), and
Poltava (January 20) on their way to
Kiev. On January 27, the Bolshevik army groups converged in
Bakhmach and then set off under the command of Muravyov to take Kiev. after the capture of
Kiev in January 1918. As the Bolsheviks marched towards Kiev, a small Ukrainian National Republic unit of less than 500 schoolboys (some sources give a figure of 300), commanded by Captain Ahapiy Honcharenko, was hastily organized and sent to the front on January 29, 1918, to take part in the
Battle of Kruty. The small unit consisted mainly of the Student Battalion (
Kurin) of
Sich Riflemen, a unit of the Khmelnytsky Cadet School, and a
Haidamaka detachment. About half of the 500 were killed during the battle. On January 29, 1918, the
Kiev Arsenal January Uprising, a Bolshevik-organized armed revolt, began at the
Kiev Arsenal factory. The workers of the plant were joined by the soldiers of the Ponton Battalion, the 3rd Aviation Regiment and the Sahaydachny regiment. Sensing defeat, the "Central Rada" and Petlyurist forces stormed the city on February 3. After six days of battle and running low on food and ammunition, the uprising was suppressed by counter-revolutionary forces, in which 300 Bolshevik workers died. According to Soviet era sources, more than 1,500 pro-Soviet workers and soldiers were killed during the struggle. On February 8, the Ukrainian People's Republic evacuated Kiev in order to avoid destruction by opposing Soviet troops, which then entered Kiev under Mikhail Muravyov's on February 9. Once the Bolsheviks took Kiev, they began an offensive in
right-bank Ukraine. However, on February 9, the UNR signed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and thus received aid from
German and
Austro-Hungarian troops in late February, over 450,000 troops. These setbacks forced the Bolsheviks to sign
a preliminary peace treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic on June 12.
Post-Hetmanate intervention soldiers in front of
St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in
Kiev During November 1918, troops from the
Directorate of Ukraine orchestrated
the overthrow of the Hetmanate with some help from the
Bolsheviks. German forces led by the
Soldatenrat kept their neutrality during the two-week-long civil war as they were withdrawing from the country, due to the defeat of the
German Empire in
World War I. The Directorate reestablished the
Ukrainian People's Republic. On January 22, 1919, the neighboring Ukrainian republics united under the
Unification Act. The Central Military-
Revolutionary Committee in
Kursk on October 22, 1918, issued the order to form two divisions under the Army Group, the
Ukrainian Front or the Group of the Kursk Direction. The group was assigned the ''Worker's Division of Moscow'', the 9th Soviet Division, 2nd Orlov Brigade, and two armored trains. According to Antonov-Ovsiyenko, the Army accounted for some 6,000 soldiers, 170 artillery guns, 427 machine guns, 15 military planes, and 6 armored trains. On December 15, 1918, the meeting of the Ukrainian chief of staff was called in Kiev headed by
Otaman Osetsky and including the Chief
Otaman Petliura, Colonel Bolbachan, Colonel Shapoval,
Sotnik Oskilko. They were discussing the border security and formed a plan in case of threat from all sides. To stop the coming war with the Bolsheviks, the government of
Chekhivsky sent a delegation to Moscow led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Semen Mazurenko. The delegation succeeded in signing a preliminary peace agreement yet it did not stop the aggression from the Russian side due to poor communication between the delegation in Moscow and the government of the
Ukrainian People's Republic. On December 28, 1918, the Central Committee of the Left
UPSR officially declared the mobilization of forces in the support of the Soviet government by an armed staging. From the beginning of January 1919, the Bolshevik bands consistently were crossing the eastern and north-eastern borders to raid.
January 1919–June 1919 During the Red Army's
westward offensive in the winter of 1918–1919, Soviet forces moved into Byelorussia as well as into
Lithuania, as the newly created
Soviet republic of Byelorussia had hoped to include Lithuania. On January 7, 1919, the Bolsheviks
launched an offensive, with an army led by
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko,
Joseph Stalin, and
Volodymyr Zatonsky. After joining forces with the Galician Army, Ukrainian army command ordered a general offensive on Kyiv. On 12 August Ukrainian troops entered
Vinnytsia, on 14 August -
Starokostiantyniv, on 19 August -
Berdychiv, and on 21 August reached
Zhytomyr. On 30 August troops of the Zaporozhian Corps, headed by
Volodymyr Salsky, liberated Kyiv. However, simultaneously with the entry of Ukrainian troops into their capital, on 31 August
Anton Denikin's
Volunteer Army established its positions in the city. After a standoff, Ukrainian troops were forced to retreat to the outskirts of Kyiv. Eventually, on 6 November 1919 the command of the Ukrainian Galician Army signed a separate peace with the Volunteer Army. Meanwhile the Bolsheviks made gains in
Right-bank Ukraine, and the Polish army advanced from the west, so that by the end of November the Ukrainian army found itself surrounded from three sides. As a result, on 4 December 1919 a conference of its leadership decided to cease regular military operations and engage in underground partisan warfare. Petliura's forces kept fighting. They lasted until October 21, when they were forced to cross the Zbruch River and enter Polish-controlled
Galicia. There they were disarmed and placed in
internment camps. This was the last operation of the
UNR Army against the Soviets. The end of the Second Winter Campaign brought the Ukrainian–Soviet war to a definite end, and in response, the Red Army terrorized the countryside.
Local uprisings Local supporters of
Ukrainian People's Republic created anti-Russian and anti-Bolshevik rebellion states on occupied territories, such as the
Independent Medvyn Republic, as well as the
Kholodny Yar Republic. They kept fighting with Russians and collaborators until 1923. ==Aftermath==