Led by local Bolsheviks, detachments of the Red Guards and Black Sea Fleet managed to occupy much of the city for 3 days, but were defeated by the forces of the Ukrainian People's Army.

After the occupation of Kharkiv by the Bolsheviks, the Red Guards and sailors of the Black Sea Fleet were tasked with capturing Synelnykove and Oleksandrivsk, which were important railway junctions in the region.

Facing reports that 8,000 heavily-armed Bolsheviks were advancing towards Synelnykove, with the aim of cutting off Ukraine from the Don Host, Symon Petliura ordered that the railway track in Oleksandrivsk be dismantled and the city's sailors be detained.

29 November] 1917, Petliura began transferring his troops of the Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) to eastern Ukraine, in order to maintain its connection with its allies in the Don Host.

This alarmed local Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, who desperately attempted to establish a defensive line through the region, marking the capture of Oleksandrivsk as a necessity to prevent the UPA from linking up with the Don Cossacks.

[2] By this time, a conflict between the local Bolsheviks and the Ukrainian authorities was already brewing in Oleksandrivsk, with 40 Free Cossacks, 13 UPA soldiers and a dozen officers facing off against 300 Red Guards.

250 Haydamaks of the 3rd Haydamatsky Kuren were sent from Katerynoslav to reinforce the city's garrison, with whom they captured a number of armored vehicles from the Bolsheviks of the 3rd Rear Auto Repair Shop.

12 December] 1917, a detachment of sailors of the Black Sea Fleet (led by Aleksei Mokrousov [ru]) arrived from Crimea to assist the local Bolsheviks,[3] occupying the city's southern railway station.