The government was declared by the proclamation of the Ukrainian state on 30 June 1941, which also pledged to work with Nazi Germany.

General Vsevolod Petriv was elected head of the committee in absentia with Volodymyr Horbovy chosen as acting leader and Viktor Andriievsky as second deputy.

Yaroslav Stetsko proclaimed in Lviv the Government of an independent Ukraine that "will work closely with the National-Socialist Greater Germany, under the leadership of its leader Adolf Hitler, which is forming a new order in Europe and the world" – as stated in the text of the "Act of Proclamation of Ukrainian Statehood".

[6] On 5 July, OUN-B leader Bandera was placed under honorary arrest (Latin: custodia honesta) in Kraków, and transported to Berlin the next day.

On 12 July 1941 he was joined in Berlin by Stetsko, whom the Germans had moved from Lviv after an unsuccessful attempt by unknown persons to assassinate him.

They included: The Prime Minister was Yaroslav Stetsko The government also featured a Council of Seniors, which was headed by Kost Levytsky.