The army, formed on April 15, 1945, and commanded by General
Pavlo Shandruk, consisted of the following units: •
1st Galicia Division (formerly,
14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), however, there is no proof to demonstrate that the renaming was done formally) •
2nd Division, organized into two brigades – the Free Ukraine Anti-Tank Brigade (Вільна Україна) and a second brigade – from remnants of the
Ukrainian Liberation Army and other Ukrainian units, led by General
Petro Dyachenko; •
B Group (50 men) led by General
Taras Bulba-Borovets; •
Ukrainian Free Cossacks led by Colonel Tereshchenko; •
1st Reserve Brigade led by Colonel Hudyma; •
2nd Reserve Brigade led by Colonel Malets. Plans were made regarding the inclusion of the
Ukrainian Liberation Army,
Kuban Cossacks and Georgian military divisions. The primary purpose of creation of the Ukrainian National Army was to integrate all the Ukrainian units fighting the Soviets under a single command. The intended size of the army, encompassing all the Ukrainian units subordinate to
Oberkommando des Heeres was 220,000. However within the two months left till the end of the war, Shandruk was able to gather about 50,000 soldiers. ,
Lviv, Ukraine In reality, Shandruk was able to command only the 1st Division and elements of the 2nd Division. On May 7, under his influence, the division – located in Western Austria by this time, after slowly moving from
Slovenia (February 1945) – withdrew further from
Red Army forces. The Army now split into several groups, with one heading towards the Italian border and surrendering to the
British Army's
15th Army Group, while others moved toward the German and Swiss borders and surrendered to the
US Army's
6th Army Group. The UNA soldiers were interned in Northern Italy, in the area controlled by
Polish II Corps forces. After the capitulation, Shandruk asked for a meeting with Polish general
Władysław Anders in London, and asked him to protect the army against the deportation to
Soviet Union. Despite the Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect Ukrainian soldiers as the former citizens of the
Second Republic of Poland. Shandruk and the bulk of his forces managed to remain in the West, with many of the former UNA soldiers joining the
French Foreign Legion. Other groups, splintered, either surrendered to the Soviet or the Western Allies, facing repatriation, with several hundred interned in Switzerland. The UNA had a bad relationship with general
Andrey Vlasov's
Russian Liberation Army and was never subordinated to it. == References ==