The origins of the conflict lie in the complex nationality situation in Galicia at the turn of the 20th century. As a polish ukrainian relations of the House of Habsburg’s relative leniency toward national minorities, Austria-Hungary was the perfect ground for the development of both Polish and Ukrainian national movements.
Multiple incidents between the two nations occurred throughout the latter 19th century and early 20th century. For example, in 1897 the Polish administration opposed the Ukrainians in parliamentary elections. The ethnic composition of Galicia underlay the conflict between the Poles and Ukrainians there. The Austrian province of Galicia consisted of territory seized from Poland in 1772, during the first partition. The religious and ethnic divisions corresponded to social stratification. These efforts were resisted and thwarted by those local Poles who feared losing control of Lviv and East Galicia.
The timing of proclamation of the Republic caught the Polish ethnic population and administration by surprise. Oil on canvas, Polish Army Museum, Warsaw. West Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed in Lviv. Fighting between Ukrainian and Polish forces was concentrated around the declared Ukrainian capital of Lviv and the approaches to that city. In Lviv, the Ukrainian forces were opposed by local self-defence units formed mostly of World War I veterans, students and children. However, skillful command, good tactics and high morale allowed Poles to resist the badly planned Ukrainian attacks. After two weeks of heavy fighting within Lviv, an armed unit under the command of Lt.
Colonel Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski of the renascent Polish Army broke through the Ukrainian siege on November 21 and arrived in the city. On November 9 Polish forces attempted to seize the Drohobych oil fields by surprise, but outnumbered by the Ukrainians, they were driven back. The Ukrainians would retain control over the oil fields until May 1919. On 6 November, a new Ukrainian polity was proclaimed in the Northern half of the region of Bukovina: Ukrainian Bukovina under President Omelian Popovych. Dmytro Vitovsky, first commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army, flanked by two officers, 1918. By the end of November 1918, Polish forces controlled Lviv and the railroad linking Lviv to central Poland through Przemyśl, while Ukrainians controlled the rest of Eastern Galicia east of the river San, including the areas south and north of the railroad into Lviv. As Polish units tried to seize control of the region, the forces of the Ukrainian People’s Republic under Symon Petlura tried to recover the territory of Kholm Governorate already controlled by the Polish troops.
According to Richard Pipes, the first major pogrom in this region took place in January 1919 in the town of Ovruch, where Jews were robbed and killed by regiments affiliated with Symon Petlura’s Cossack ataman, Kozyr-Zyrka. After two months of heavy fighting the conflict was resolved in March 1919 by fresh and well-equipped Polish units under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły. Thanks to fast and effective mobilization in December 1918, the Ukrainians possessed a large numerical advantage until February 1919, and pushed the Poles into defensive positions. February 1, 1919, Ukrainians eventually managed to surround Lviv on three sides. The city’s inhabitants were deprived of water supply and electricity. Ukrainian forces continued to control most of eastern Galicia and were a threat to Lviv itself until May 1919.
On December 9, 1918 Ukrainian forces broke through the outer defences of Przemyśl in the hope of capturing the city and thus cutting off Polish-controlled Lviv from central Poland. However, the Poles were able to quickly send relief troops and by December 17 the Ukrainians were forced back. From January 6-January 11, 1919 a Polish attack by 5,000 newly recruited forces from formerly Russian Poland commanded by Jan Romer was repulsed by Western Ukrainian forces near Rava-Ruska, north of Lviv. Only a small number of troops together with Romer were able to break through to Lviv after suffering heavy losses. On February 14, Ukrainian forces began another assault on Lviv. By February 20, they were able to successfully cut off the rail links between Lviv and Przemysl, leaving Lviv surrounded and the Ukrainian forces in a good position to take the city.
However, a French-led mission from the Entente arrived at the Ukrainian headquarters in February 22 and demanded that the Ukrainian cease hostilities under threat of breaking all diplomatic ties between the Entente and the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian troops fought with Czechoslovak and Hungarian local police. They succeeded in capturing some Hungarian-controlled Ukrainian settlements. The Blue Army included the 1st Tank Regiment of 120 Renault FT tanks.
With its arrival in Lwów, the Ukrainians had to face the fourth largest tank unit in the world. On May 14, 1919, a Polish general offensive began throughout Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. It was carried out by units of the Polish Army aided by the newly arrived Blue Army of General Józef Haller de Hallenburg. The Ukrainian lines were broken, mostly due to the withdrawal of the elite Sich Riflemen. The Polish advance was accompanied by a large wave of anti-Jewish violence and looting conducted not only by disorganized Polish mobs, as in Lviv in 1918, but by Polish military units operating against the orders of their officers, in particular those of the Poznań regiments and Haller’s army. 1919 in Lviv, dated 5 January 1919.
On June 8, 1919, the Ukrainian forces under the new command of Oleksander Hrekov, a former general in the Russian army, started a counter-offensive, and after three weeks advanced to Hnyla Lypa and the upper Stryi river, defeating five Polish divisions. 10 bullets for each Ukrainian soldier. Józef Piłsudski assumed the command of the Polish forces on June 27 and started yet another offensive, helped by two fresh Polish divisions. On June 28, the Polish offensive began. Short of ammunition and facing an enemy now twice its size, the Ukrainians were pushed back to the line of the river Zbruch by mid-July 1919.
