The illusion of liberation: Why some Ukrainians initially welcomed Nazi invaders

Wars & Conflicts · Published 16 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: When Germany invaded the USSR in 1941, many Ukrainians viewed them as natural allies against Soviet rule. This hope for independence was quickly shattered by a brutal reality of enslavement and racial policy that left the region devastated.

In regions like Galicia, there was a long-standing belief that Germany—as an enemy of both Poland and the U.S.S.R.—would be the key to Ukrainian statehood. This sentiment was so strong that members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) accompanied German forces into Lviv on June 30, 1941, proclaiming a provisional state administration. However, the Nazi response was swift and punitive: within days, these organizers were arrested and interned in concentration camps.

The Nazis did not intend to support Ukrainian independence. Instead, they organized the territory into administrative units like the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, where Ukrainians were slated for servitude. While some locals joined auxiliary forces due to anti-Soviet or anti-Semitic motivations—with over 105,000 Ukrainians volunteering for Nazi police forces—the German administration ruthlessly directed resources toward its own war effort. This included seizing food and directing all available industrial output to the German military while depriving Ukrainian cities of supplies.

The human cost was catastrophic. Ukraine lost an estimated 5 to 7 million people during the war, with roughly 1.5 million being Ukrainian Jews. The occupation saw 2.2 million Ukrainians taken as slave laborers (Ostarbeiter) to Germany. By 1947, despite the return of evacuees, the population had shrunk by nearly 5 million from pre-war levels. The material destruction was equally vast: only 20 percent of industrial enterprises remained intact, and the national wealth suffered an estimated 40 percent loss.

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