For Ukraine, the Second World War was not just a clash between Hitler and Stalin. It was a war of survival fought on Ukrainian soil, with civilians and soldiers caught between two brutal regimes. Millions of Ukrainians were mobilized into the Red Army, often at gunpoint, to serve as expendable manpower in Stalin’s desperate struggle against Nazi Germany. Their experiences reveal the cruelty of Soviet command, the dangers of the front, and the terrible fate awaiting many if captured by the Germans.

Forced Conscription and “Penal” Service

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Ukraine was on the immediate frontline. Entire regions were overrun within weeks. Stalin’s regime responded with mass mobilization, sweeping up Ukrainian men into the Red Army. Many were conscripted under threat of execution; refusal meant being branded a “traitor” and facing deportation or a bullet.

Soviet military command treated Ukrainian recruits with suspicion, seeing them as politically unreliable. Many were sent into combat with minimal training, outdated weapons, or no weapons at all. Eyewitnesses recall entire units where only a fraction of men carried rifles; those behind them carried no more than spare clips or bayonets. If a rifleman fell, the man behind was expected to seize the weapon and continue firing.

This practice became grimly known as “one rifle for every two men.” It reflected Stalin’s desperation to halt the German advance at any cost, even if it meant sacrificing waves of poorly armed conscripts.

Blocking Detachments, “Meat Waves,” and NKVD Enforcement

Stalin’s infamous Order No. 227 (July 1942) declared: “Not one step back!” To enforce this, NKVD blocking detachments were stationed behind Soviet lines with machine guns, tasked with cutting down soldiers who attempted to retreat without orders.

In many battles, Ukrainian conscripts were deliberately sent forward in “meat waves”—human masses hurled against entrenched German positions. Their role was to absorb bullets, mines, and machine-gun fire, exhausting the enemy’s ammunition and exposing defensive positions. Only after these expendable first waves were slaughtered did regular Soviet units advance, using the brief openings created by the sacrifice.

For Ukrainian recruits, this meant fighting not only under fire from the Germans but also under the guns of their own commanders. Advance or die; retreat and be executed. Survival often depended more on luck than on skill or courage.

German Capture and SS Executions

For those who survived the front lines only to be captured by German forces, especially the SS, survival was far from guaranteed. The Nazis considered captured Red Army soldiers, particularly Ukrainians, as subhuman “Slavic” enemies. Mass executions of Soviet prisoners of war were common, and Ukrainians often faced harsher treatment, suspected of being nationalist sympathizers or “partisans in disguise.”

In camps across occupied Europe, Soviet POWs were starved, shot, or worked to death. Some estimates suggest that of the 5.7 million Soviet POWs taken by Germany, 3.3 million died—many of them Ukrainians. SS units, tasked with ideological war, often carried out mass shootings immediately after capture.

Between Loyalty and Desperation

Despite this brutality, millions of Ukrainians did fight bravely in the Red Army. Some rose to command positions and earned recognition, proving their loyalty in the eyes of Moscow. But for many, loyalty was never a choice. They were forced into a war of annihilation, expendable in Stalin’s calculations.

Caught between Nazi genocide and Soviet terror, Ukrainian soldiers became pawns in a war neither side fought for their freedom. Many families lost multiple generations—sons taken into the Red Army, executed if captured, or killed in hopeless assaults. Villages were left without men to farm or rebuild.

Timeline of Key Battles Involving Ukrainian Conscripts

Ukrainians were forced into the bloodiest battles of the Eastern Front. Their experience followed the same pattern: under-armed, driven forward in waves, and punished mercilessly if they faltered.

• Battle of Kyiv (1941): One of the largest encirclements in history. Over 600,000 Soviet troops were captured, many of them Ukrainians conscripted days or weeks earlier. Those who survived German camps often perished from starvation.

• Battle of Kharkiv (1942–43, four separate battles): Ukrainians were repeatedly mobilized in desperate counterattacks. Entire divisions of conscripts were wiped out in frontal assaults, leaving little trace.

• Battle of Stalingrad (1942–43): Ukrainian units were thrown into the cauldron of street fighting. Survivors describe advancing with no weapons, grabbing rifles from fallen comrades under machine-gun fire.

• Battle of Kursk (1943): Soviet high command hurled massed infantry, including Ukrainian conscripts, against fortified German defenses. Human wave tactics cost tens of thousands of lives in days.

• Kyiv Offensive (1943): Retaking Kyiv came at enormous cost. Ukrainian soldiers bore the brunt of the initial waves, softening defenses before regular Soviet units secured the city.

Each battle repeated the same grim cycle: Ukrainian men sacrificed as expendable manpower, Stalin trading their lives for inches of ground.

Legacy

The story of Ukrainian soldiers in the Second World War is a story of coercion, sacrifice, and survival under impossible conditions. Stalin’s regime conscripted them at gunpoint, denied them weapons, threw them into “meat waves” to absorb German fire, and threatened them with death if they faltered. The Germans, for their part, offered only execution or starvation in camps.

For Ukraine, the war was not a “Great Patriotic War” as the Soviets called it—it was a war of double occupation. Ukrainians fought, bled, and died, not for freedom, but because both dictators demanded their lives. The memory of this suffering remains central to Ukraine’s view of the Second World War: a time when its people endured not only foreign invasion, but betrayal by the very state that claimed to defend them.

Conclusion: History Repeats Itself

Ukraine’s soldiers in World War II stood on the cruelest of frontlines. Forced into service, often unarmed, they faced death from both Germans and Soviets. Used as cannon fodder in human wave assaults, they bore the brunt of battles designed to spend lives cheaply. Their story is one of tragic exploitation—a reminder that while the world remembers the victories of empires, it is ordinary men, compelled at gunpoint, who paid the highest price.

Today, Russia repeats the same tactics in its war against Ukraine. Conscripts and prisoners are hurled into hopeless “meat assaults,” poorly armed, sent forward to soak up Ukrainian fire before better-trained units advance behind them. Just as Stalin once sacrificed Ukrainians by the hundreds of thousands, the Kremlin now sacrifices its own citizens in the same ruthless fashion. The lesson unlearned is clear: for Moscow, human lives remain expendable.