The victory over Nazism in World War II remains one of the key events of the twentieth century, but for Ukraine, its celebration is like trying to eat a cake of heroism mixed with bitter historical compromises. In this article, we will look at Ukraine’s contribution to the victory, the heroic pages of its history, as well as the complex aspects such as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, collaborationism and the geopolitical games of the Big Three at the 1943 Tehran Conference, which influenced the fate of Ukrainians and Poles. The addition of new information, such as the Tehran Plot and the Russian Cossacks in Hitler’s service, will help to better understand the context and current challenges of historical memory.
Ukraine is the epicentre of war
For Ukraine, World War II began on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany attacked Poland. More than 110-120 thousand Ukrainians in the Polish Army resisted, of whom 8,000 were killed in the first month of the war. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on 23 August 1939, divided Eastern Europe between Hitler and Stalin, placing Western Ukraine and Belarus in the Soviet sphere of influence. On 17 September 1939, the Red Army occupied these territories, in what Soviet historiography called the “liberation”.
During the German-Soviet war (1941-1945), Ukraine became the main battlefield of the Eastern Front. Between 50 and 75% of Wehrmacht divisions and half of the Soviet forces operated on its territory. Almost half of the strategic operations of the war took place here. It is estimated that 8 to 10 million Ukrainians died, 7 million fought in the Red Army, 250,000 in the Allied armies, and more than 100,000 in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought against the Nazis and the Soviet regime. Women in Ukraine made up a significant part of the national militia: in Chernihiv oblast, 13,269 out of 64,787 militia members, and in Mykolaiv oblast, 18,884 out of 70,464. They worked as signalmen, nurses, and pilots, sharing the hardships of war.
Heroism and tragedies: the highlights of the loaf
The heroism of Ukrainians is undeniable. The 383rd and 393rd rifle divisions from Donbas, the 214th and 395th from Voroshilovgrad, and the 293rd and 81st from Sumy became famous on the battlefields. These divisions were formed mainly from local residents, including miners and peasants, who were distinguished by their courage and resilience. For example, the 383rd Division, known as the “Shakhtarska” Division, took part in the liberation of Stalingrad, and the 293rd Division distinguished itself in the battles for Kharkiv and the Kursk Bulge. 450,000 natives of the Kyiv region and 400,000 from other regions fought in the Red Army, taking part in key operations such as the Battle of Stalingrad, the Kursk Bulge, the liberation of Kyiv, and the storming of Berlin. The UPA, despite controversial assessments, destroyed German garrisons and rescued concentration camp prisoners, fighting until the mid-1950s.
Bitter filling: pact, deportations, collaboration
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the trigger for the war. The joint Soviet-German parade in Brest on 22 September 1939 symbolised the cooperation between the two regimes. The Soviet occupation of western Ukraine was accompanied by repression: tens of thousands of intellectuals were killed, and hundreds of thousands were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, launched with the support of the Pact, cost huge losses due to Finnish resistance.
Collaborationism is another painful chapter. About 250,000 Ukrainians collaborated with the Nazis, including 80,000 who served in the SS Division Galicia. For some, it was a way of fighting the Soviets, for others, it was a way of survival. At the same time, the Russian Cossacks also massively supported Hitler. It is estimated that 25,000 Cossacks, mostly from the Don region, served in the Wehrmacht. In 1943, the 1st Cossack Division was formed in Poland under the command of SS Grouppenführer Helmut von Pannwitz, which burned more than 20 villages in Yugoslavia, committed rape and mass murder. One example is the village of Djakovo in Croatia, where Cossacks locked 120 women and girls aged 7 to 68 in a church and raped them all night. Von Pannwitz justified this by calling the Cossacks “a wonderful racial type”. In the occupied territories of the USSR, in particular in Krasnodon in the Luhansk region, Cossacks organised parades in support of Hitler, along with the activities of the underground Young Guard.
Modern Russia is reviving the Cossacks, using them as a propaganda tool. In 2025, Russian presidential aide Dmitry Mironov said that Cossacks were actively involved in the war against Ukraine, with 18,500 of them at the front. This highlights how Russia manipulates history by presenting collaborators as heroes.
The Tehran Conspiracy: Geopolitical Games Against Ukraine
The Tehran Conference (28 November – 1 December 1943) was a turning point in the war, but it had tragic consequences for Ukraine. According to new information, Stalin and Roosevelt entered into a secret agreement aimed at countering Churchill’s strategy. Back in the summer of 1943, an American delegation was arranged to take up residence in the Soviet embassy in Tehran, which violated diplomatic principles. Officially, this was explained by the threat of an assassination attempt by the Germans, in particular the mythical Operation Long Jump, allegedly prepared by the saboteur Otto Skorzeny. However, the Soviet and British intelligence services had already destroyed German agents in Iran in the summer of 1943, and the leaders of the Big Three knew that there was no threat. The myth of the “Long Leap” was invented to justify the close cooperation between Stalin and Roosevelt, and later popularised by the Soviet film Tehran-43, starring Alain Delon.
In the informal atmosphere of the Soviet embassy, Stalin and Roosevelt agreed to divide spheres of influence. Roosevelt “surrendered” Eastern Europe to Stalin, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, as well as part of China, in exchange for the USSR’s promise to fight Japan. Instead of an Allied landing in the Balkans, as Churchill had proposed, to limit the influence of the USSR, Normandy was chosen, a decision that allowed the Red Army to “liberate” Eastern Europe. This destroyed Churchill’s “Balkan strategy”, leaving him in despair, as seen in rare images from the conference.
These agreements had a direct impact on Ukraine. The geopolitical games of the Big Three increased tensions in Volyn, where the Volyn tragedy unfolded in 1943, with mutual ethnic cleansing between Ukrainians and Poles. The weakening of Poland’s position as a result of the Tehran Agreement and the Soviet policy of “division and rule” contributed to the escalation of the conflict, which claimed tens of thousands of victims.
Honesty as a strength
Ukraine has the right to be proud of its contribution to the victory over Nazism: millions of lives, the heroism of soldiers, partisans and civilians are the “highlights” of the cake that we honour on 8 and 9 May. But we cannot ignore the “filling”: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, repression, collaboration, crimes of the victors, including the rape of 200,000 women in Germany, or geopolitical conspiracies that determined the fate of Ukraine without its participation. The Tehran Conference showed how great powers decided the fate of small nations, and the history of the Russian Cossacks reminds us that collaborationism was not an exclusively Ukrainian phenomenon.
Today, when Russia is using the myths of the Great Patriotic War to justify its aggression against Ukraine, we must be honest. Honesty is not a weakness, but a strength that allows us to honour heroes and warn the world against new tragedies. Ukraine, which has been standing up to Russian imperialism since 2014, is fighting for the same values – freedom, dignity, and the right to self-determination. And this time, we are not cannon fodder, but a nation that creates its own history.
Author: Marianna Nyzhnia
