Shankovsky was born in 1903 in the village of Duliby, Stryi Raion.
He received military education in Ukrainian and Polish schools and served in the armies of the UPR and the UGA.
During the Second World War, he participated in the Resistance in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
[citation needed] In January 1944, Shankovsky, as a leader of the UPA forces, headed the initiating commission that established contacts with representatives of former Ukrainian political parties as well as nonpartisan activists.
Shankovsky died on 25 April 1995, aged 91,[1] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was interred in the Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.