[10][11] As a result of the Bolshevik aggression, the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic that initially pursued anti-military policy sought military support after the capital Kyiv was sacked on 9 February 1918, by Mikhail Muravyov.

After that all participants moved to St. Sophia's Square, where Skoropadskyi was blessed by Nykodym, the Vicar of Kyiv and Galicia (Metropolitan Vladimir was executed by Bolsheviks).

The Sich Riflemen opposed the coup and were disbanded along with the "Bluecoats", a Ukrainian division formed from POWs in Germany and Austria-Hungary named after their blue uniforms.

Opponents of the Skoropadskyi regime committed acts of arson and sabotage and, in July 1918, assassinated Hermann von Eichhorn, the commander of German troops in Ukraine.

[citation needed] Almost the entire commanding staff of the Ukrainian State armed forces consisted of officers of the former Imperial Russian Army.

[14] Following the armistice ending World War I, Ukrainian socialists formed the Directorate of Ukraine (the "Directory"), whose forces were spearheaded by the Sich Riflemen and "Greycoats".

Skoropadskyi had to turn to the thousands of Russian White Guard officers who had escaped to Ukraine with the intention of joining Denikin's Volunteer Army in the region of the Don river further east.

They[clarification needed] were assembled into a "Special Corps" but proved unable to resist the Directory's forces led by Symon Petliura.

[citation needed] According to the "Laws on the Provisional State System of Ukraine", the leading position of the country was occupied by the Christian Orthodox faith.

[citation needed] On 25 June, the government allocated 3 million rubles to help priests who moved to Volhynia, Kholmshchyna, Grodno, Podolia, and Polesia, which were annexed to the Ukrainian State.