German Military Invasion of Ukraine: Final Period of Phase Three (Late March — Early May 1918)

Abstract

This article is to complete a series of publications aimed to discuss German military operations in Ukraine (from March to early May 1918). This offensive was aimed to expel Bolsheviks from Ukraine and to restore Central Council to power in Kyiv in accordance with the provisions of Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. At the same time, Germany desperately needed Ukrainian food and raw materials to continue war on the Western front. Modern Ukrainian historiography tends to consider these events using the data obtained either from Soviet publications, where reliable data were substituted by ideological dogmas, or from memoirs, which too often proved to be misleading. Therefore, operations of the German Army were considered as a process perfectly executed according to a single predesigned plan. However, there were several distinctive phases determined by German High Command as political and military goals. Thus, it is important to explore the order of battle of German and Austro-Hungarian forces in Ukraine, and to consider relevant aspects of military operations aimed to expel Bolsheviks from the territory of Ukrainian People’s Republic. Valuable archival data were provided by recent studies of the Austrian scholars V. Dornik and P. Lib, as well as the Polish researcher V. Mȩdrzecki. This article is discussing the final period of Phase Three of the German military operations in Ukraine. 19 German divisions were engaged into the offensive in Donbas, Crimea, and the Black Sea coast. They established control over the entire Ukraine (excluding Crimea, with Ukrainian units forced to abandon the peninsula). The offensive ended in Rostov-on-Don with Germans trying to help Don Cossacks in opposition to Bolsheviks. Finally, hostilities ended in late May. The author provides the analysis of the operation made by the German High Command, as well as evaluated losses of German soldiers, which proved to be considerably lower than those claimed by the Soviet historiography.At that time, German occupation provided the only real chance to preserve Ukrainian statehood, however by making Ukraine a vassal to Germany.