In March 1939, at the end of the military conflict between the Kingdom of Hungary and the unrecognized Carpatho-Ukraine, he was captured by the Hungarians, but managed to escape to Nazi Germany through the territory of modern Slovakia.

In 1942, after having received an assignment from Vasyl Kuk, Stakhiv, together with the OUN marching groups, launched an underground network in the Donbas, where he managed to get considerable support.

"[1] According to Stakhiv, Alexander Fadeyev in his novel "Young Guard" did not accidentally give the traitorous partisan the name "Yevgeny Stakhovich", because he was already known to the Soviet Ministry of State Security.

Noting that he had fought against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Stakhiv refuted the slander against himself in the Ukrainian-American press and even tried unsuccessfully to bring Fadeyev to trial.

Stakhiv had six brothers, one of whom, Volodymyr, was also a significant member of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, and served as minister of foreign affairs in the government of Yaroslav Stetsko.