Ukraine and WW2: the early days of Barbarossa

It should be mentioned that an attempt was made to establish a Ukrainian government. On June 30, 1941 the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) headed by Stepan Bandera took the Germans by surprise by announcing the establishment of a new independent Government of Ukraine with Yaroslav Stetsko as Prime Minister. About one week later the Germans disbanded this government and arrested the members. Bandera and Stetsko were sent to Sachsenhausen Prison in Germany where they spent the war.

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) supported the idea of an independent Ukraine. During World War II it was split in two factions called Melnykivtsi and Banderivtsi headed by Andrey Melnyk and Stepan Bandera. They both struggled against Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia and sometimes had divergent views with each other but they were united by the idea of indpendence for Ukraine. Moscow saw the Ukrainian nationalists as a dire threat and produced much Soviet propaganda blackening them especially Bandera who was accused of crimes against Ukrainians and Jews. The Kremlin also early in the War started a campaign of promoting patriotism with Russian (not Soviet) nationalism and chauvinism which culminated in the famous toast to the Russian people by Joseph Stalin on May 24, 1945.

http://www.infoukes.com/history/ww2/page-06.html

http://ww.cym.org/archives/bandera99.asp

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