They were often quickly reorganized units of the former Imperial Russian Army and newly formed volunteer detachments that later joined the national armed forces.

The main requests of the congress were proclamation of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic, full Ukrainization of army and navy, and an immediate peace treaty.

But these plans were never realized, as the Rada was overthrown in a coup led by Pavlo Skoropadsky, who brought the Hetmanate to power in Ukraine.

[1] However, this army did not develop beyond the organizational stage, due to many dissident movements and gross unpopularity of the Hetmanate amongst peasants and civilians.

[4] After several weeks of battle, the Red Army overwhelmed the fairly small Ukrainian force, and took Kiev on February 9.

A German-Austrian Operation Faustschlag offensive removed the Bolsheviks from Kiev in early March, and the Rada government returned to the capital.

[4][5][6][7][8] The German/Austro-Hungarian victories in Ukraine were due to the apathy of the locals and the inferior fighting skills of Bolsheviks troops compared to their Austro-Hungarian and German counterparts.

[14] Until finally the newly founded Soviet Union and Poland signed the Treaty of Riga on March 18, 1921, ending the war.

The original structure of the army, as designated by the Tsentralna Rada, planned to organize an optimistic eight infantry corps and four cavalry divisions.

[1] But in May 1919 (long after the Directorate assumed power), the Ukrainian people's army was forced to reorganize after its manpower dropped from 100,000 to 15,000 in just five months of warfare with Soviet Russia.

[9] According to then Ukrainian politician Volodymyr Vynnychenko, this dramatic decrease in manpower occurred mainly because of communist propaganda.

Ranks (in descending order) since end of 1917: Ranks have altered in June 1918, but only for officers: The Ukrainian Military Cemetery in Aleksandrów Kujawski is the final resting place of 17 soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Army who were interned in Aleksandrów Kujawski internment camp in December 1920 and died during their stay there (before the camp was disbanded in the autumn of 1921).

In 1921, Edward Mycielski-Trojanowski [pl] donated a piece of land adjacent to the barracks of the internment camp for this purpose.

[18] On July 24 of the same year, the officers in the camp organized a collection among the internees to fund the establishment of the cemetery and the erection of a monument.

[18] They collected 20,000 Polish marks, which enabled them to tidy up the graves and prepare a design for the commemorative burial mound.

On the other side, there was an inscription: 'Pro Ukraine libertate mortuis' and in Polish: 'To the heroes of the fight for the freedom of Ukraine, 4th and 6th Ukrainian Divisions – 1921'.On the front slope of the mound, the internees placed a red sandstone plaque with an inscription in Ukrainian: Chaj woroh znaje, szczo kozaćka syła/szcze ne wmerła pid jarmom tyrana/szczo kożna stepowa mohyła/ce wiczna niepimszczena rana (English: Let the enemy know that the Cossack strength has not yet died under the yoke of the tyrant, that every steppe grave is an eternal, unavenged wound).

[19] During the interwar period, the Ukrainian cemetery in Aleksandrów Kujawski became a significant site for annual religious services and patriotic ceremonies, gathering emigrant communities from across the Pomerania and Kuyavia regions.

[20] On 29 May 1927, for the first time, a memorial service was held at the cemetery in honor of Symon Petliura, a prominent Ukrainian leader.

Viktor Babicz, a participant in the 1939 ceremonies, recalled:[23]We would arrive for the morning mass at the local Orthodox church, which on that day could not accommodate all the faithful.

[24] The initiative to restore the cemetery was taken up in the spring of 1991 by Emilian Wiszka and Colonel Szymon Smetana, with the support of local authorities,[24] particularly the mayor of Aleksandrów Kujawski, Zdzisław Nasiński, and his deputy, Stanisław Krysiński.

In his speech, the mayor of Aleksandrów Kujawski emphasized the importance of commemorating shared history in the context of European integration.

Jerzy Rejt [pl], chairman of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, spoke about the necessity of reconciliation between the two nations to prevent future conflicts.