The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (German: Brotfrieden, "Bread Peace"; Ukrainian: Берестейський мир, romanized: Beresteiskyi myr, "Berestian Peace") was signed on 9 February 1918 between the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), ending Ukraine's involvement in World War I and recognizing the UPR's sovereignty.

The presence of Central Powers forces undermined the independence of the Rada and lead to establishment of the Ukrainian State of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi.

On 17 December 1917, Vladimir Lenin, as the head of the Sovnarkom, released an ultimatum in which he accused the Central Rada of disorganising the front lines, stopping "any troops going into the region of the Don, the Urals, or elsewhere"; sheltering political enemies such as the members of the Cadet Party and those who had sided with Kaledine and requiring to "put an end to the attempts to crush the armies of the Soviet and of the Red Guard in Ukraine".

Lenin gave twenty-four hours' notice to the government of what he called "the independent and bourgeois Republic of the Ukraine" to respond.

The peace negotiation was initiated on 3 December 1917 by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic government, represented by a delegation headed by the Ukrainian-born Leon Trotsky.

On 12 January 1918, Count Ottokar Czernin, representing the Central Powers, recognised the independent delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic[2] but with Csáky refused to discuss the questions of Halychyna, Bucovina, and Subcarpathian Rus.

[4] Within days of the treaty's signing, an army of over 450,000 men from the Central Powers entered Ukraine, and after only a month, most of the Bolshevik troops had left the country without any significant resistance.

[2] On the other hand the reason for annulment was that after the Vienna's requested to keep the agreement secret, Sevriuk excited with signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk disclosed the information to the Ukrainians of Lemberg (Lviv).

[7] The Central Powers signed a separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on 3 March 1918.

Although the imperial and royal government in Vienna withdrew from parts of the treaty, the damage inflicted on any remaining sense of loyalty or trust towards the monarchy among the Poles was devastating and beyond repairability, while the pro-Habsburg and anti-independence faction of the Polish politicians participating in the government suffered total humiliation and irreversible discreditation in the eyes of the Polish population which ceased to regard any possible Austro-Polish Solution as a viable option, focusing instead entirely on re-establishing independence.

The final break with the Tsentralna Rada came on 29 April, when General Pavlo Skoropadskyi declared himself hetman of the Ukrainian state.