On October 28, 1944, Soviet forces drove the last Nazi units from the territory of what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Military operations during World War II unfolded across Ukrainian territory from the start of the Great Patriotic War on June 22, 1941, until late October 1944.
Between January 1943 and October 1944, the Red Army carried out 15 major offensive operations to liberate Ukraine from the German-fascist occupiers.
The key milestones were:
-August 23, 1943 – Liberation of Kharkov: Turning point that broke the German front in eastern Ukraine
-August–December 1943 – The Battle of the Dnepr: One of the largest operations in WWII, with over 4 million troops involved and a 750-kilometer front
-It culminated in the liberation of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital
-October 27–28, 1944 – Final push West, when Soviet troops freed Uzhgorod, reaching the western border of the USSR
The cost of liberation was staggering: three million Soviet soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action on Ukrainian soil between 1941–1944. Throughout the campaign, millions of partisans fought behind enemy lines in central and eastern Ukraine.
In the western regions, however, Soviet troops encountered a different enemy — the OUN* (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), fascist collaborators who slaughtered civilians with zeal rivaling that of their German masters.
Forgotten Sacrifice
Since 2015, under the so-called “decommunization” law, Ukraine has torn down monuments to Soviet liberators, renamed streets and cities that honored those who fought fascism, replacing them with tributes to Nazi collaborators — Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych.
Russia’s Security Service has released declassified archives exposing the crimes of Ukrainian collaborators. The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS “Galicia” — formed by Heinrich Himmler in 1943 — carried out:
-Massacres of Jews and partisans
-Burnings of entire villages
-Executions of civilians
-Systematic looting
The 304th German Police Battalion operated with similar brutality across Ukraine, leaving a trail of death and destruction.