Recap / Pre Civil War RK Ukraine

Reichskommissariat Ukraine Recap:
Index | Pre-Civil War Reichskommissariat Ukraine | Ukrainian Civil War | Post-Civil War Reichskommissariat Ukraine | Stus' Republic of Ukraine | Dziuba's Republic of Ukraine | Ohloblyn's Republic of Ukraine | Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic | Post-Civil War Ukrainian State | Klyachkivsky's Ukrainian State | Shukhevych's Ukrainian State | Stetsko's Ukrainian State

Two decades of meaningless violence, and all Koch could think of was wading further into the blood. As if the blood didn't surround him already.

"Oh, my Ukraine!
Cast down and beaten
Her fields lie fallow
Her sons' blood chokes it
Oh, my Ukraine!
Her oppressors strangle it
Those who let this happen
Those who wished it to happen
Cry out as it rips out
Their mother's heart
And spill the blood of their brothers
Oh, my Ukraine!
Cast down and betrayed!"

— Written by Danylo Nosenko, 1962

Reichskommissariat Ukraine is the German-occupied colony governing the titular eastern European country. Famously known as the "Breadbasket of Europe", the Ukrainian people are cruelly exploited to extract as much agricultural output as the Nazis can. Every consumption cycle, the Reichskommissariat must meet a grain quota by mechanizing their agriculture, managing their native farmers, or hoping for favorable weather conditions. Meet Germany's export demands and the Reichskommissariat will get more investments and settlers to bolster regional development, perpetuating the cycle of grain production and colonial oppression.

Overseeing this merciless system is Erich Koch, Gauliter and Oberpräsident of East Prussia. Even by the Nazis' standards, Koch is an unpleasant man, whose hatred for the Ukrainians goes as far as to disdain the pragmatic use of native collaborators. Already discontent of losing his position in East Prussia, Koch feels overwhelmed by his duties in Ukraine; since the West Russian War, the Reich has demanded more grain from Ukraine and Koch's usual methods of terror and violence are becoming less effective against the increasingly defiant Ukrainians. With profits slowing down, Koch often takes out his frustration on his subordinates, quibbling over the most trivial matters with them.

Chief among his hated allies is Georg Leibbrandt, Koch's deputy and follower of the infamous Alfred Rosenberg. Leibbrandt doesn't share his superior's burning hatred for the Ukrainians. In fact, he proposes a more humanitarian hand to "uplift" the eastern Europeans, even if they'll still be chained to the Reich. Another high-ranking Nazi is Otto Ohlendorf, the Supreme SS and Police Leader who once led the Einsatzgruppe D in its extermination campaigns during the Holocaust. Though Ohlendorf's big dream is to be part of Germania's economic ministry, his brutal honesty and stubbornness got him a one-way ticket to Ukraine, though Ohlendorf sees the land as a chance to carry out his ideas. On the opposite side of the pendulum is Hans-Otto Bräutigam, the Representative of the Foreign Office, who earned his position thanks to some intervention by his influential uncle. Unlike his colleagues, Bräutigam doesn't have much taste for the Nazis' overt violence and wants to liberalize Ukraine, even if the nature of his workplace means he has to moderate this position. Last among Koch's chief minions is Pieter Schelte Heerema, a Dutch collaborator and head of the Nederlandse Oost Compagnie (NOC), representing the industrialists' interests in Ukraine.

Per Generalplan Ost, the Reichskommissariat has facilitated an influx of German settlers to steal the land from the indigenous people. Among these settlers are the Van Nordens, a Dutch family. Its patriarch, Pieter, is a fanatical Nazi and war veteran. Considering himself a paragon of the NSDAP's ideals, Pieter raises a family with his submissive wife, Antonia, and their oblivious son, Markus. Below the German ruling class are the collaborators, native Ukrainians who have betrayed their country in exchange for cooperation with the Nazis and an elevated social status. The chief collaborationist body is the Ukrainian National Committee (UNC), which was founded by Leibbrandt and funds the anti-partisan Ukrainian National Army. It is led by the widely hated Andriy Melnyk, the aging founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, in which his faction split from the group to collaborate with the Nazis. On the bottom rungs of the social hierarchy are the average Ukrainians, which includes Danylo Nosenko, a concentration camp survivor and poet who is content to lay his head low under the current regime. His wife, Halyna, isn't as submissive and secretly aids anti-German groups without her husband's knowledge.

Lurking in the wilderness, thousands of other Ukrainians also continue to wage a guerrilla war against the Reichskommissariat, which would restore Ukraine's independence. However, the partisan movements are far from united. One of the most well-known and powerful of these cells is the Ukrainian Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (U-SSR), a band of communist partisans led by Oleksandr Shumskyi, who fight for the restoration of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Alongside them is the Ukrainian National Revolutionary Army (UNRA), created by Taras Bulba-Borovets and led by Yuriy Horlis. The UNRA has a wide network of collaborators secretly aiding them under Koch's nose and helping them grow so that they may eventually revive the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic from 1917. However, their strength is divided in their simultaneous fight against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the most notorious and violent of the major partisan groups. The UPA is made up of OUN members who used to collaborate with the Germans, until their leader Stepan Bandera was murdered by them. Outraged, the UPA's vengeful crusade is spearheaded by Dmytro Klyachkivsky, a militaristic hawk who plans to not only depose the Nazis, but invade Ukraine's neighbors, until all of its claimed territories are taken. Among the minor partisans from the U-SSR is Bohdan Antonenko, sent to Kiew by his commander to trade food for medicine.

Bohdan knows that he's getting the raw end of the deal, but he is in no position to deny it, so he sadly accepts and stops by a local bar to cope. By sheer coincidence, Bohdan eavesdrops on a conversation and hears thrilling news: Koch is going to take a vacation back to East Prussia, the first one since 20 years of being Reichskommissar. Koch himself is excited to get some time away from Ukraine and packs in an automobile to the airport. He doesn't even hear the ticking sound inside his car and, before he can make a turn, the automobile blows up, having been wired with a bomb by Bohdan earlier. The assassination attempt is only a partial success. While Koch is still alive, he's in a coma, which leaves the Reichskommissariat without a head.

News of Koch's fate spreads far and fast. The partisans see their golden opportunity and become much more brazen in their attacks. Meanwhile, the Nazi officials panic that the situation is quickly getting out of hand and Leibbrandt is hastily instated as Acting Reichskommissar in Koch's absence. Leibbrandt, Ohlendorf, and Bräutigam despise each other, having vied for Koch's position for years. But, in the face of the growing partisan threat, the triumvirate set aside their disputes and form the Security Council, where they and the other leading German officials will temporarily govern Ukraine together and form a united front. The Nazis are desperate to contain the partisans, as the U-SSR plagues the east, and the UNRA and UPA are attacking from the west. Ohlendorf and his SS are called to put the partisans down, focusing on any one of the three partisan groups. Though Ohlendorf achieves several victories, it's not enough to put any of them down for good.

Though openly in a truce, the three Nazis still try to undermine each other. In one case, a German officer is pressured to consolidate resources into Leibbrandt's UNA or Ohlendorf's SS, supporting one or the other. Bräutigam starts making moves himself, calling his uncle for support and forming his own truce with Heerema, who has nothing to gain from an alliance with Ohlendorf and was previously insulted by Leibbrandt when he ignored his industrialization proposals.

Though outgunned by the Nazis, the U-SSR has a few tricks up its sleeve. One of the greatest fortunes to come from Koch's coma is the surge of morale in their cause, as thousands of more Ukrainians eagerly join their ranks. Those recruited will be trained either by providing a National Defense Manual or expanding regimes. The U-SSR will have to wait before they can brazenly fight in the open, but the U-SSR harasses the Reichskommissariat by ambushing their bases, either committing more attacks at a greater casualty count or reserving their manpower so that their defensive lines are well-defended. One of the U-SSR's greatest soldiers is Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a hero of the Soviet Union and veteran sniper who lost her husband during World War II and swore to fight the Nazis to her last breath. However, Pavlichenko gets a wound in her arm, severely hindering her capabilities and forcing her into an apartment to heal under doctor's orders. Unhappy that she's not active in the field, Pavlichenko reluctantly passes the time by writing in her journal, whose contents impress her general enough to share her story in the underground papers. He even promotes and turns her in to the propagandized face of the U-SSR movement

The UNRA is not to be underestimated either. Within the group, there are three factions subverting the Reichskommissariat's influence: the Polissian Guard, the Culturalists, and the collaborator moles. The Polissian Guard is led by Tara Bulba-Borovets, a former Banderite and collaborator, and they are responsible for training the UNRA's fighters, as well as combatting their enemies in the Reichskommissariat and the UPA. The dissident, Ivan Dziuba, commands the Culturalists, who seek a revitalization of Ukrainian culture to keep their nation alive, such as sharing books in slave camps. Dziuba himself is a popular man, who may attract more supporters to the UNRA with his public outreach campaigns. Perhaps the most dubious of the UNRA's allies is Oleksander Ohloblyn, the mayor of Brest and face of the UNRA-aligned collaborators. Though Ohloblyn currently pulls some strings to give the partisans an advantage, he also remorselessly committed numerous atrocities for the Nazis, such as the Babi Yar massacre. His place in the UNRA is controversial, but Horlis cannot deny the benefits he provides, as he can reshuffle bureaucrats to replace them with UNRA-friendly ones and either rally more police departments to their side or bring additional munitions to them. As the months progress, the UNRA will eventually need to address other divisive matters if they want to form a provisional government, namely the treatment of German settlers and a possible truce with the U-SSR.

The UPA also prepares for the "Third Struggle", demanding absolute conviction from its generals and motivating its soldiers with promises of revenge against those who have wronged Ukraine. Klyachkivsky manages most of the UPA's offensive campaigns, bitterly contesting Galicia with the UNRA, instilling zealotry into his soldiers, and potentially executing Melnykite collaborators and forming a nationalist commissariat to enforce Bandera's teachings. Klyachkivsky is a fierce Vozhd, but he's not the only influential figure in the UPA. Beside him is his former friend, Roman Shukhevych, a general who isn't as ideologically extreme as Klyachkivsky. Shukhevych's responsibility is training the UPA's soldiers and managing the logistics, which may also mean appealing to the Ukrainian farmers to join their movement. The third and last leading UPA figure is Yaroslav Stetsko, a well-connected schemer who pulls in allies from regions like Poland and the Carpathians. Notably, Stetsko offers some unorthodox strategies, like empowering the Sluzhba Bezpeky to purge traitorous elements within their faction. Shukhevych and Stetsko are rivals to Klyachkivsky and they plot his eventual downfall so either one of them can seize power. But, so long as the Reichskommissariat stands, the three dragons will remain united.

As Ukraine slowly descends into chaos, the ordinary people scramble to survive. Pieter is determined to protect his home from the partisans and, contrary to his wife's wishes, refuses to leave out of blind loyalty to the Reich. The Nosenkos try to maintain their usual routine, as Danylo keeps quiet and Halyna secretly awaits the chance for Ukraine to free itself. Bohdan, the assassin himself, suffers greatly during this time. As Germany cracks down on the partisan threat, they wipe out Bohdan's entire cell. With all of his friends dead and no serious commitment to the U-SSR's cause, Bohdan becomes a lone wanderer, stealing and scavenging food to survive.

The already-critical state of Ukraine finally reaches a breaking point when news of Adolf Hitler's passing spreads. Much like the rest of the Einheitspakt, Ukraine gets torn apart as the partisan movements rise up and openly claim dominion of their controlled territories. In the Donbass Blitz, the U-SSR partisans establish themselves in the titular region and prepare to march westward to take the rest of Ukraine. Next, Volhynia is seized by the UPA, proclaiming itself to the Ukrainian State and viciously attacking the police and settlers to satiate their vengeance. Western Ukraine is completely lost when the UNRA takes Brest and Podillia, thanks to intervention from Ohloblyn, revealing his true allegiance in the process. The battlelines are set and the Ukrainian Civil War has begun.

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This route provides examples:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Due to the constant patrols from German soldiers and police collaborators, many members of the resistance are forced to traverse the underground sewer networks, which are spacious enough to fit in and travel undetected. A Ukrainian partisan in Luhansk looks over the city from atop an apartment block with his makeshift weapons before descending and disappearing into the sewers.
• Affably Evil: A UPA soldier seems like a Friend to All Children who offers candy to them. He's also part of a genocidal organization who have massacred tens of thousands of Poles.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Just as the Ukrainian Civil War is about to start, a slave factory is taken over by its rebellious Ukrainian slaves. The overseer pathetically begs for his life, but the mob doesn't listen and stabs him in the chest.
• And Then What?: As the UNRA build their strength, an angry mob lashes out against the local German plantation owner and kills him in retribution for their mistreatment. Standing over his corpse, a wave of discomfort washes over the mob, as they never considered what to do at this point and know that the Nazis will retaliate with extreme prejudice. The group comes down to three ideas: escape, make a Last Stand, or call the UNRA for help. The last option comes to fruition, when the Culturalists arrive and recruit them.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing:
  • One Ukrainian mayor, who collaborates with the Nazis, has a particularly cruel streak, advocating the public execution of Banderites and personally ordering the deaths of five individuals. Thus, when he's arrested on grounds of treason, a few of the city's denizens look out, shaking their heads and some even laughing.
  • The Nosenkos are relieved by the news of Poland falling into civil war and eagerly await the chance for Germany's empire to come crashing down. Danylo comments that it's like 1917 again.
• Arcadia: Downplayed. As the Germans crack down on partisans following Koch's coma, Bohdan flees to an isolated village surrounded by miles of farmland. He considers it idyllic in a dystopian way, as its architecture is quaint and simple, yet the people are thin and dressed in bland clothing, showcasing their poverty and oppression under the German jackboot.
• Armor-Piercing Question: While conversing in a forest, Kuk confesses to Shukhevych that he considers Bandera a Broken Pedestal. Shukhevych tries to defend Bandera as a man who did what he thought best, but Kuk asks him why Bandera's plans would involve killing more Ukrainians, if he was such a great man. Shukhevych dodges the question by pointing out that it's time to leave their post, but he can't stop thinking that Kuk might be right.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Across Ukraine, the UNRA's uprising starts, as the Ukrainian laborers in the factories, plantations, and jailhouses rise up against their oppressors and kill them without mercy. Since many of these overseers were fascists and cowardly collaborators who used thuggery to silence dissent, there's hardly any sympathy for them.
  • Among the many innocent victims that they massacre in the establishment of the Ukrainian State, the UPA also kills the German administrators who have long gotten away with oppressing and exploiting the Ukrainian people.
  • Lebed tortures and kills an OUN deserter, who is an unrepentant fascist and Melnykite.
  • The wife of a Ukrainian collaborator gives her husband a bomb in the guise of a gift, which kills him. This outs her as a member of the UPA, but her husband is hardly a sympathetic victim, since he turns over partisan sympathizers to the Nazis and profits off the suffering of his fellow countrymen.
• Bad Boss: The foreman of a Ukrainian factory is verbally abusive to his workers and, when the SS demand a 50% increase in productivity, the supervisor bans all breaks and rations, until the quota is met.
• Bait-and-Switch: Following the news of Koch's removal, Leibbrandt announces to the council that they need to replace him with "someone more competent, more loyal, and more dedicated to Germanic law and our people's destiny". Ohlendorf smugly smiles with the expectation that the candidate is himself, but the expression is wiped away when Leibbrandt switches gears and calls Ohlendorf a craven liar.
• Battle Couple: A pair of U-SSR partisans are a couple and they spend their honeymoon in a graveyard park before needing to fight the Germans.
• Battle Discretion Shot: While reading his illegal history book, Kyi sees a truckload of German soldiers head towards a warehouse. Relieved that his treason hasn't been discovered and ducking to cover behind a wall, Kyi looks outside after a minute of silence and sees over a dozen German soldiers dead, with none of their killers in sight. Despite having missed the action, Kyi is astounded that anyone could resist the local German garrison.
• Believing Their Own Lies: One defiant Ukrainian tries urging his friends to join in resistance against the Germans, but nobody listens to him, preferring to live in fear than suffer a horrible death. The sole rebel convinces himself that his words inspired, at least, one individual, but the only person who believes that is himself.
• Beige Prose: Ohlendorf announces the expansion of the Kampfgruppe in a short, uninspired speech, since Kampfgruppe officers were already assuming control of police duties; the speech was just a formality.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Koch's secretary gets no respect from him. When there's trouble scheduling his flight to East Prussia, Koch loses his temper and takes it out on his secretary, who stays silent and puts in the extra work, just so that she can be freed from her boss for a couple days.
• Beneath Notice: A Polissian Guardsman persuades or bribes a convoy of trucks to deliver their ammunition shipments to the UNRA, figuring that the Germans won't notice a few crates going missing. He seems to be right on that front and is about to deliver the address to the drivers; what he didn't count on was the UPA ambushing him and manipulating the drivers into sending the ammo to their side instead.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Markus learns in school that Ukraine is a province of Germany and full of Aryan Germans, but this confuses him because all of his neighbors are Ukrainian and don't want to play with him, not understanding the complex ethnic conflict manufactured by the Nazis and the lies they tell about it. He doesn't speak up because there is a punishment for children who speak out of turn, but the lesson doesn't feel right to him.
  • While offering a truce against Leibbrandt and Ohlendorf, Heerema tells Bräutigam that he can trust him. Bräutigam doesn't need to think twice to know that it's a lie, aware of his backstabbing nature.
• Both Sides Have a Point: On the question of German settlers, Dziuba and Borovets call for the extradition of them back to Germany so that their land can be redistributed back to the Ukrainians. However, Ohloblyn is of a more pragmatic mind and argues that the settlers should be kept because they could stimulate the fledgling economy of the Republic they're about to build. The audience is divided between both approaches and it's up to the player to pick a side.
• Bring It: After the UNRA takes over the North and proclaims their Republic, Leibbrandt analyzes how unfavorable the situation is for him, but is ready to meet the challenge of the civil war and moves to destroy all those who have risen up.
• Brutal Honesty: Taras, the old man who gave the Ukrainian history book to Kyi, does not gloss over the fate of his disappeared mother, telling him that she was tortured, raped, and killed by the Nazis. It's something that he did not enjoy revealing, but he cannot lie about it either.
• Cassandra Truth: One messenger reports back on the massive partisan uprisings, following Hitler's passing. Most in the Reichskommissariat ignore him, unable to believe his claims, but the reports (or lack thereof) on missing military units confirms that the messenger was right all along.
• Children Are Innocent:
  • While resting at a park, a pair of U-SSR partisans see three children playing with each other, with one pretending to be a monster and chasing the other two. The partisans remark on their innocence to the world they've grown up in, particularly focusing on a nearby young man who lost three of his own family members to the Nazis.
  • A Polish girl accepts some candy from a mysterious soldier and shows her father the gift. What she doesn't realize is that the soldier belonged to the UPA, who hate and kill people like her. The father recognizes the danger and sternly warns his daughter to stay away from the man, revealing that his organization killed her uncle because of his ethnicity.
• Cruel Mercy: For taking in and nursing a wounded Polissian Guardsman, a villager is beaten to near death by several UPA soldiers. They don't kill him, but that doesn't mitigate any of the pain felt by the villager.
• Deadly Euphemism: An officer interrogates Danylo about partisan activity and is dissatisfied to hear that the latter doesn't know, so he leaves with a threatening comment "We take security seriously, Mr. Nosenko. The moment you see something, tell us - or there will be consequences."
• Declaration of Protection: A romantic couple in the U-SSR see a man mourning the loved ones he's lost to the Nazis. This reassures them that they aren't fighting for revenge and instead fighting to protect each other.
• Despair Event Horizon: An old U-SSR partisan lies on his deathbed, giving up any hope of Ukraine being liberated. His last living action is to write a letter to his family, urging them to flee to Turkey while they still can.
• The Determinator:
  • One of the participants in Koch's assassination attempt has spent twenty years fighting for Ukraine's liberation, ensuring that a communist revolution will never compromise on its goals or decay into becoming no better than their enemies.
  • Unlike his friends, one Ukrainian is eager to rise up against the Nazis, inspired by the bravery of the Soviet Union's soldiers and preferring to die a free man than a slave to Germany.
• The Dog Bites Back: Years of oppression drives a mob of Ukrainians to kill the local German plantation owner and join the UNRA's cause.
• Dirty Coward:
  • A young German guard of a prison is terrified by the sounds of partisans approaching and abandons his comrades to retreat to an old prison. The prisoners mock him for his cowardice, ignoring his threats to have them executed and guilt tripping him into accepting his fate.
  • If the UNRA are attacked by the Reichskommissariat prior to the civil war, the Nazis will learn the location of their bases from UNRA defectors, who previously collaborated with the Nazis, then switched sides to the UNRA, and finally rejoined the Nazis because they would never be accepted by their comrades and want to save their own sorry hides.
• Divide and Conquer: In the pre-civil war stages, the UNRA and UPA battle with each other just as much as the Germans, giving the Reichskommissariat a chance to weaken them before the conflict becomes more open.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • A vendor sells a newspaper to a customer, remarking how tragic it is that Koch was put in critical condition by a car bomb. Unbeknownst to him, he's talking to Bohdan, the man behind the assassination attempt.
  • While stopping by a Dutch farm for a grain collection, a German soldier thinks about how boring his assignment is and doubts that there are any partisans for the accompanying SS to keep guard of. Unbeknownst to him, communist partisans were at the farm he visited, coercing the owners to use it as a hideout.
• Due to the Dead: Bohdan is horrified to see his base raided after Koch's coma and all of his comrades killed, including his commander. After crying, he recovers all of their bodies to bury them in solemn respect.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Some of Ohlendorf's men are dismayed at the notion of fighting a civil war, mourning the losses they will inevitably sustain.
  • Despite happily working with the Nazis, a Ukrainian collaborator has a wife and daughter he adores. Unfortunately for him, the feeling is not reciprocated by his wife, who is a UPA mole and kills him with a bomb.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Koch angrily tells his secretary that he needs to take a plane to East Prussia. The secretary tells her husband about this, who gets a little drunk and tells a whole bar this news. This chain of events leads to Bohdan hearing this critical information as he's returning from a trade deal, giving him the idea to try assassinating Koch.
• Exact Words: If the UNRA are targeted by the Nazis, some UNRA defectors will join the Reichskommissariat and sell out their locations, hoping to escape a noose for their treason. When they've outlived their usefulness, they end up eating a bullet by firing squad. Ohlendorf thinks that no promises were technically broken because they weren't executed by hanging, but that didn't necessarily exclude anything else.
• Face Death with Dignity: Before a U-SSR apartment base is raided by the German security forces, a partisan plays a rendition of "Dance of the Knights" on his violin, planning to spend his last living moments with a crescendo.
• Failed a Spot Check: On any other day, Koch would've noticed a small crowd gathering near his car and the ticking of the bomb inside of it, but he's too excited by the prospect of visiting East Prussia to notice. Thus, the bomb goes off and Koch is sent into a coma.
• False Reassurance: As Ukraine is about to fall into civil war, Leibbrandt makes as many calls to salvage his remaining supporters, who give him reassurances that they will stick with him. However, Leibbrandt doesn't feel any less uneasy about surviving the looming crisis.
• Forced from Their Home: Under attack, the German citizens living in the UPA's territories emigrate out of their homes, sharing stories of the UPA's war crimes.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: With the situation rapidly destabilizing after Koch's coma, Bräutigam calls his uncle for help, but this only produces the bare minimum amount of support needed to survive. Fortunately, this has a more important side effect of winning the respect of his colleagues, who are glad there is, at least, someone trying to do something.
• Handshake Refusal: If they want to formalize a truce, the UNRA delegate offers a handshake to the U-SSR delegate, but this gesture is ignored, showing palpable tension between the two sides.
• Heel Realization: With Koch in a coma and the partisans striking at the garrisons, a German soldier flees to a prison and gets shamed by its inmates for his crimes and cowardice. The sheer terror of the situation makes the soldier realize that he's getting what's coming to him and that he can't escape fate's punishment.
• Heroic Sacrifice: If the communist partisans focus the fight on the Reichskommissariat, a U-SSR soldier is cut off from his battle group during a skirmish, with all of them pinned down, unless someone can give covering fire. Seeing no one able, the soldier risks his life by dashing to a nearby alley and getting himself shot in the shoulder. Fortunately, the soldier is still alive and his comrades gain the momentum to lay suppressing fire on the Germans, turning the tides of the battle.
• Hidden in Plain Sight:
  • Kyi buys a Ukrainian history book from an old cripple, who uses his decrepit appearance to mask the fact that he has connections to the black market.
  • The UNRA can use seemingly normal churches as a front to recruit Ukrainians who would be sympathetic to their cause.
• Hope Spot:
  • Taken aback by the surge of partisan activities after Hitler's death, a group of German officers and administrators have their hopes uplifted when they hear a radio come alive and give a chance that their superiors are calling them. They soon discover that the transmission is not from the Reichskommissariat, but from the newly founded Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic.
  • As a Dutch farm approaches bankruptcy, a miracle seems to strike for them when a sudden surge of Ukrainians offer themselves as workers for minimal pay. The Dutch farmers realize too late that these so-called workers are actually U-SSR partisans who coerce them to use their basement as a temporary hideout.
  • After a day of checking for contraband and rebel sympathizers, a Ukrainian collaborator excitedly returns back home to his family and thinks about how good his life is from working with the Nazis. Then, his wife gives him a package and tells him it's a gift from the local government commander. When he opens it, the gift is revealed to be a bomb, which kills him and leaves no trace of the wife and daughter.
• Hope Springs Eternal:
  • The trope is said word-for-word in an event, where Shumskyi refuses to succumb to despair and will fight for the dream of a better tomorrow.
  • Overseeing a map of destroyed infrastructure and buildings, Holubnychyi is dismayed at the damage Germany has wrought on Ukraine, but retains hope that he can rebuild the country, once the Nazis are driven out.
• Horrible Housing: The office used by Shumskyi is suffering from rot and water damage, making the building somewhat dangerous to traverse.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Horboyvi sees a young UPA recruit get executed for trying to steal some extra food rations to feed his grandmother. He's so disgusted by the event that, when he meets Shukhevych, he asks for a drink.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: While rejecting Heerema's mechanization plans for the Dnieper, Koch calls him a "Jewish Bolshevik capitalist spy for the Americans", an incomprehensible word salad mashing two incompatible ideologies together.
• Improvised Weapon: The UPA can use fertilizer to produce makeshift explosives. Many farmers are reluctant to give it up and risk having a bad crop output, but one UPA commander convinces them to fork it over under threat of German reprisals, if their uprising fails.
• The Infiltration: A plan for the Wehrmacht to stop the partisans is to infiltrate their ranks with spies, though they only have the resources to focus on either the UNRA, UPA, or U-SSR.
• Inciting Incident: Kyi's normal routine is interrupted when he sees a woman get harassed by a group of Hitler Youths, so he throws a rock at them. The subsequent chase leads Kyi to hiding in a courtyard littered with propaganda posters from the Ukrainian resistance groups, putting him on the path to resisting Germany himself.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: While practicing and failing to hit the targets with his rifle, Pieter dismisses his wife's pleas to flee Ukraine while they still can, stating that he can do what the Reich requires and defend the country, as an Aryan individual. When he fires again, he still misses.
• Irony: Cherkassy is designated as the meeting place where the UNRA and the U-SSR can formalize a truce, despite the city being a repeatedly contested battleground between all of the partisans and the Nazis.
• It Began with a Twist of Fate: In a completely lucky string of events, Koch's secretary tells her husband that the Reichskommissar is going to fly to East Prussia, they get drunk from an extremely generous bartender, and they start leaking Koch's planned trip to the rest of the bar patrons. By another miraculous coincidence, Bohdan happens to enter the same bar after a bad trade deal, where he learns about Koch's trip and starts planning an assassination attempt, kickstarting the rest of the story from here.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: If the UNRA heeds Ohloblyn's request to tolerate the German settlers, a UNRA soldier will feel disappointed, but ultimately accepting of the fact that the UNRA are not yet ready to depose the Nazis and that too radical of an action would inspire harsh reprisals.
• Last Request: A Kobzar player, lying on death's doorstep, makes a final request for his nephew to take his bandura and keep the long-repressed tradition alive. A refusal doesn't even cross his nephew's mind and, with tears flowing down his eyes, takes upon the instrument.
• Leonine Contract: Bohdan makes a deal with a seller for some bandages and medicine in exchange for a huge ransom of food. Bohdan knows that the deal is one-sided, but his cell needs the medicine that badly.
• Like Father, Like Son: A Ukrainian woman still remembers how her husband refused to submit to the Germans and waged a war of resistance, until a Wehrmacht soldier killed him during the West Russian War. To her dismay, her eldest son wants to follow his father's footsteps, prompting fears that she'll lose him too, yet can do nothing to dissuade him.
• Living Lie Detector: A UNRA recruiter for defectors orders them to renounce their former allegiance to Germany and affirm their loyalty to the new cause. He's observant to know who's being insincere with their pledges, only letting them in because he needs the manpower and vowing to keep an eye on them.
• Make an Example of Them: A group of Ukrainians sees the corpse of their friend, who was killed by the Wehrmacht for helping the U-SSR, and strung up with a sign reading "I WAS CAUGHT AIDING BANDITS". Despite the intention to strike fear in the others, the citizens are outraged and think about joining the resistance to avenge their friend.
• The Mole: One U-SSR member infiltrates the police ranks to report on how they are responding to the partisans' new tactics. He internally laughs at how ignorant they are of the U-SSR's full potential and the fatal mistakes made to counter them.
• My God, What Have I Done?: If the UNRA adopts a belligerent strategy against the U-SSR, a commander will oversee the massacre of a U-SSR camp, with many killed in a mortar strike and the rest crushed under an abandoned building that the UNRA blows up when they try to hide there. Seeing the death and destruction he's wrought, the commander develops his first doubts about the justification of his actions.
• Never Learned to Read: One UPA soldier can't read the Ten Commandments of the Ukrainian Nationalists, so he relies on a radio broadcast to learn about it.
• Never My Fault: Bohdan ambushes a car and kills its driver, only to be surprised that the victim is a Ukrainian like him. He is at first disgusted and ashamed at himself before he self-rationalizes his crime, imagining he might've become a collaborator later on to justify the murder.
• New Era Speech: The establishment of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic is proclaimed with a new era speech on a radio loop, declaring themselves the legitimate government of Ukraine and promising to drive the Nazis and the other partisans out of the country.
• Nightmarish Factory: In one factory, all of the assembly line workers bear unreasonable quotas and bear intolerable conditions without any breaks or rations, due to the threat of the SS. Meanwhile, the factory itself is described as a giant monster, with a gnashing, groaning maw and breath that reeks of blood and cinders.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Seeing a wounded Polissian Guardsman, a sympathetic villager takes him to his home and nurses him back to health. Unfortunately, his village is controlled by the UPA, who catch wind of this, shoot the Guardsman, and beat the villager to near-death.
• No Sympathy: After eating some stolen tomatoes, Bohdan desperately looks for a place for temporary residence and a meal, begging for help with a sob story of his house being burned down in a German raid and walking for several days. Unfortunately, the first place he goes to isn't sympathetic to his plight and denies him charity under the excuse that the residents barely have any space for themselves.
• Non-Answer: In a blatant case of factionalism, a UPA commander realizes that his two subordinates were given contradictory orders on where to deliver their artillery pieces, with one telling them to send it to a forward outpost and another ordering them to deliver it to a cache to be transported later. When asked who to obey, the conflicted commander tells them that they'll figure that out later.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: One communist resistance cell is filled with troops who have no interest in class consciousness and are only ever excited by raiding. Some of the higher ups complain about this, but the main commander remains confident that they can still liberate Ukraine or, at least, die trying.
• Oh, Crap!: Of all the bad news springing up since the German Civil War, the most terrible news to the Reichskommissariat is the UNRA's uprising in Brest and Podilla, eliciting terror from the Germans. While the uprisings in the east and south can be suppressed in time, a loss in the north means severing the train and road links to Germania, so the Reichskommissariat cannot bring in reinforcements or try escaping to Germany, if they lose. The news is even worse with the reveal that Ohloblyn has joined them, leaving every administrator fearful that they will be betrayed and left to die in Ukraine.
• Overt Rendezvous: Off-duty, a Ukrainian police officer rendezvous at a random bar, under the glares of his fellow countrymen. There, he gives a Trust Password by ordering some soup, which is not on the menu, and reveals himself to be a UNRA double agent, passing along intelligence on the German forces. This gives them the information necessary to ambush a German truck and steal it for themselves.
• Passing the Torch: In an abandoned farmhouse, a trio of UNRA veterans drill a unit of soldiers in preparation for the civil war. Being much older, the trio observe that they used to be just like the recruits, when they were younger, glad that they can pass on their methods and ideals to the next generation of troops.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Deconstructed. Under Dziuba and Borovets' discretion, the UNRA can adopt a policy of extradition for the German settlers so that their property can be rightfully returned to the Ukrainians. Unfortunately, the Germans pay back their retribution with even more atrocities, with mobs of German settlers raiding villages and butchering any Ukrainians they can get their hands on. If a "pay evil unto evil" approach were applied to a group who already don't see themselves as evil and deserving of punishment, then they will use the Ukrainians' atrocities as justification for "self-defense" and hurt even more people.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Even Ohlendorf agrees with Bräutigam's notion that the Security Council should start making cautious reforms, if only because they need to respond to the growing partisan threat.
  • Stetsko and Shukhevych have reservations about Klyachkivsky's plan to attack the Polissian Guard, albeit for pragmatic reasons. The former reasons that they still have defectors in their ranks, who are more eager to fight the Poles than their former comrades, and the latter adds that they don't have the manpower to make an immediate enemy of the UNRA, while the Nazis are still a threat. Their concerns barely dissuade Klyachkivsky from going through with the plan, who himself has pragmatic reason to give them concessions, lest the UPA fall apart by internal division.
  • Despite knowing that Stetsko and Shukhevych are plotting against him, Klyachkivsky doesn't move against them immediately because he still needs their men to win the Ukrainian Civil War. He advises his loyalists to merely avoid them and not antagonize, until they are ready.
• Propaganda Piece: Two Ukrainian citizens see a colorful UNRA propaganda leaflet, proclaiming "UNRA. Fight for your voice, your home and your life". One woman is unimpressed and dismisses them as troublemakers. The man, however, takes the leaflet for himself, thinking about joining.
• Reaction Shot:
  • The event following Koch's car bombing is mostly of dread from his minions. Leibbrandt is desperate to call for order, as the acting Reichskommissar; Bräutigam is thinking about taking over the Reichskommissariat; and Ohlendorf feels disdain towards the two and thinks that they'll drive Ukraine up a wall.
  • The last U-SSR event before the Ukrainian Civil War is a compilation of its leaders' reaction to the impending conflict. Richytskyi unconsciously clenches and unclenches his hands in worry; Rozdolskyi and Holubnychi sit helplessly and know that they can't help the U-SSR's efforts as civilian bureaucrats, so the former paces around the room clockwise and the latter stares at his lap to wipe his glasses; Zubatenko orders his men to get into position; and Shumskyi sits completely still, smoking a cigarette and trying to ease his fear.
• Reassigned to Antarctica:
  • If a German officer sends help to the SS over the UNA, a sore Leibbrandt will make a note to have him reassigned to an administration region away from Kyiv, far enough that he's pretty much given a dead-end job.
  • Learning that the UNRA are preparing for war, Ohloblyn reassigns any Nazi loyalists in Brest to insignificant or distant positions, where they can be replaced by his own men and prepare the city for defection.
• Refuge in Audacity: While discussing a post-war Ukrainian State, Rebet suggests to Stetsko that they should abolish the Vozhd and set up elections for a Provid, arguing that it would provoke less backlash from the citizens. Stetsko cannot believe such an extreme suggestion and has to convince himself that it must be a joke, so he awkwardly laughs. Rebet surprisingly gets away scot-free with the remark when he gives a stilted chuckle, pretending that it was a joke all along.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: If the UNRA are targeted by the Reichskommissariat, members of the organization will defect to the Nazis and sell out their comrades, knowing that they will never be accepted by them and returning to collaboration. Once the UNRA camps are destroyed, the two-time traitors are next to be put in front of a firing squad, since they can't ever be trustworthy.
• Rousing Speech:
  • In the midst of an argument about the hopelessness of continued raiding, a U-SSR commander intervenes, admitting the tragic losses they've endured over the years, but rousing his men that they will never surrender their morals or their humanity, which means continuing the fight against Germany to the last breath. The speech works and everyone gets back to devising strategies against the Reichskommissariat.
  • In the aftermath of Koch's coma, Ohlendorf gives a rousing speech to his officers in the Cherigow region, proclaiming themselves to the be the vanguard protecting the Reichskommissariat and calling for a new order led by the SS, where men like them can reap the land and any treason can be swiftly punished.
  • Rallying his most loyal men, Shukhevych affirms their commitment with a speech, denouncing Klyachkivsky as a disgrace to Bandera's legacy and calling them good men who will be indispensable in the fight to take over the UPA, once the civil war is over.
  • In the last days before the civil war, Horlis gives a final, inspiring speech to a dining hall of his supporters, proclaiming themselves to be the saviors of Ukraine, vowing to step down when the war is finished, and concluding that a bright future lies ahead for Ukraine.
  • Also before the Ukrainian Civil War starts, Shumskyi delivers his own rousing speech to the U-SSR, commenting on the golden opportunity they have to depose the Nazis and wishing everyone luck on their part in the conflict.
  • With Shukhevych and Stetsko by his side, Klyachkivsky delivers a rousing speech to his ever impatient soldiers, glorifying their mission to save Ukraine and vowing that they will teach the Germans a lesson for daring to occupy their country.
  • As all of the partisan factions prepare for war, the Germans pick up a radio transmission from the U-SSR, calling for revolution against the oppressive Reichskommissariat and liberation for the people.
• Rule of Symbolism: On the onset of the civil war, the blue sky is stained with smoke and the golden fields are burned down. This is a colorful metaphor on the dark days ahead for the country, as blue skies and golden fields are the symbols represented on the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag.
• Scrapbook Story: A U-SSR event details an abandoned scrapbook from an old home in Donetsk, featuring a series of photos of people that tells the story of a church during either World War II or the West Russian War. The first photo shows four brothers, the youngest with a missing finger and the eldest with a missing eye, repairing the dilapidated church. The next photo shows the church after it is finished, now the location of a wedding where a bride is escorted to her fiancée and a priest by a one-armed man. The following series of photos shows the guests dancing in celebration, in spite of the debris surrounding them and the existing injuries they have, giving the overall message of people trying to find hope and joy in a difficult time.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Following Koch's coma and the explosion of partisan activity, many German auxiliary units in the West desert or defect to save themselves. The Reichskommissariat is quick to replace them with Wehrmacht garrisons and SS troops, who will not be so easily wavered.
  • As the UPA take over Ottersburg and Hegewald, the Generalkommissar of the region flees like a coward, with his fate unconfirmed.
• Scylla and Charybdis:
  • A German officer finds himself in an uncomfortable position where the Deputy Reichskommissar demands him to arm the UNA, while the SS are commanding him to allocate those resources to themselves. No matter what choice he makes, someone is not going to be happy with him.
  • A UPA commander is caught in a similar dilemma when he's given mutually exclusive orders on where to deliver his artillery pieces, either to a forward outpost or to a cache to be delivered elsewhere. He knows this is a result of the UPA's factionalism and that someone is going to be angry at whatever choice he makes; the outcome is not revealed.
• Seen It All: Stepan Klockurak is very old and experienced, having been Prime Minister of the Hutsul Republic, led the armies of Carpatho-Ukraine before it was crushed by the Hungarians, and joined the UPA way back when it was a Carpathian resistance group. As such, Klochurak is not afraid to travel through the backwoods of eastern Hungary alone and commands enough respect to throw his support behind one of the three influential figures in the UPA.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: In place for the civil war to start, a camp of U-SSR partisans share stories about their past collaboration with each other, particularly rambling a time when they hid in a cellar of farmers. They specifically recall the delicious carrot marmalade they were served and one partisan brags about attracting a woman there, a tale that no one buys.
• Single Tear: Right before he delivers his speech in a damp cellar, Klyachkivsky sheds a single, prideful tear at the notion that he embodies Ukraine's vengeance.
• Spotting the Thread: Many recently formed UPA units stop reporting directly to Medvid, instead going to Maivsky, a known associate to Shukehvych and Stetsko. When Medvid tells him of this, Klyachkivsky immediately recognizes this as a sign of his rivals moving against him and he tells Medvid to keep a close watch on them.
• Strongly Worded Letter: Ohlendorf expands his influence by subsuming the security forces under the Kampfgruppe, which he expects Leibbrandt and Bräutigam to take offense at. However, while he expects hefty resistance from the former, Ohlendorf has no concern for the latter because the Foreign Office has no influence over security matters and the only thing he can expect as "retaliation" is Bräutigam disapproval.
• Stunned Silence: When Bohdan's outpost is told that one of their fellow bases has been taken by the Germans, they go completely silent in fear that they'll meet a similar grim fate, but they soon brush this feeling aside to remain focused on the mission.
• Switching P.O.V.: The very beginning stages of the Ukrainian Civil War is a series of events, describing how the partisans are rising up and organizing into their own autonomous states. The perspective from which this is described depends on what faction the player is controlling.
• Sympathetic Criminal: A young UPA recruit steals extra food rations so that he can feed his ill, starving grandmother. Even Shukhevych and Horboyvi, despite agreeing that he should be punished, can sympathize with his motives and are disgusted when he's executed instead.
• Talking through Technique: Shumskyi gives the order to prepare for an attack by sending letter to his agents, using a tiny inkblot in the corner of the envelope that only U-SSR members are trained to see and know that they are being given a command.
• Talking to the Dead: Still hurt by her husband's death during the West Russian War, a Ukrainian widow sometimes visits his grave to converse with it and imagine that her husband, still alive, is responding back.
• Tempting Fate: While packing his things for a vacation in East Prussia, Koch reminisces about once being Gauleiter and Oberpräsident of the region, reminded of brighter days when he purged it of poverty and unemployment. He excitedly thinks that nothing could go wrong for the next few weeks, only for him to be knocked into a coma when the car he takes to the airport is bombed.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When a report explains the rapidly deteriorating security after Hitler's death, the reaction text is a simple "Well that's not good…"
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: Alone after the demise of his partisan cell, Bohdan is reluctant to steal from the garden of a German household, knowing that they'll be far better armed than a Ukrainian house. Unfortunately, he can't find any other farmhouse to raid and, with his hunger overpowering his self-preservation, Bohdan enters the German garden and steals a tomato. He barely escapes before the owner comes out with a rifle.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: One UPA soldier doesn't have many high ambitions, more concerned about surviving the next day and finding enough food for him and his sister. That all changes when he hears a radio broadcast on the Ten Commandments of the Ukrainian Nationalists, inspiring some optimism that Ukraine could be free from Germany's control one day. Unfortunately, he's getting this emotional boost from the wrong influences, either by Klyachkivsky, Shukhevych, or Stetsko.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Lebed and the SB OUN not only catch a deserter, but also find Melnykite propaganda on him. The double treason is enough for Lebed to smirk sinisterly and torture him to death.
• Trust Password: A UPA camp in Poland knows they're meeting a UPA messenger to prepare for war when they ask "Out late, aren't you?" and the man responds "Aye, it's getting dark. Would you give a brother a meal?"
• Uncertain Doom:
  • As a mole for the UPA, the wife of a Ukrainian collaborator kills her husband with a bomb, which blows up the entire household. The husband's charred remains confirms his death, but no body can be found for the wife or her daughter, leaving it ambiguous if the two escaped or if the wife, willing to kill her own daughter in the crossfire too, committed a suicide bomb attack.
  • While training, a UPA recruit thinks about how the rest of his family was loaded onto a truck by the Nazis and taken away to the Reichswerke factories westward. He's not sure if any of them are still alive, but considering the horrific work conditions, he's not holding out hope for them and already plots revenge on the Germans.
• The Unsmile:
  • Klyachkivsky assigns Halasa to repair the economy, once the civil war is over, a task that Halasa knows he's not up to. Halasa tries his best to mask a refusal by recommending Horbovyi, but Klyachkivsky sinisterly smiles and rests a hand on Halasa's shoulder, faux-affably giving him some encouragement and a warning to not disappoint.
  • Stetsko gives a cold, unnerving smile when he talks about what his post-war vision will be, namely in being a more capable German collaborator than Melnyk was.
• Unwanted Rescue: If they focus on fighting the UPA for Galicia, a unit of UNRA soldiers soundly destroy a UPA camp and parade in the nearby town, thinking that they have liberated it. It's only too late that they realize that the UPA wasn't an occupying force and that many of the town's family members were actually part of that camp. It doesn't help that the UNRA commander pays little sympathy to their loss and mourning.
• Venturous Smuggler: Romania has a black market of smugglers who can be hired to move weapons and munitions across Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Though not sympathetic to their goals, they are hired by the UPA to move their equipment, charging a high price to do so.
• The War Has Just Begun:
  • If the UPA are targeted by the Reichskommissariat, Ohlendorf and the SS will score a major victory, using napalm canisters to burn out the forests they are hiding in and picking off the survivors. Despite this, Ohlendorf compares the UPA to a hydra and knows that the war against them is still on.
  • The destabilized western territories of Ukraine are regained by Ohlendorf's units, but the government makes it clear that they're still far from victorious and the battle continues elsewhere.
  • Horlis is proud of his Republic's establishment during the civil war, but he recognizes the long fight that's still ahead of him and swears that he will not see his mission fail.
• Yes-Man: The members of the NOC headquarters are confused by Heerema's rant about Bräutigam and how they must oppose his liberalism, but they clap to the speech anyway.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: The Kobzar tradition is a unique part of the Ukrainian culture, which has survived centuries of repression, even by the Nazis. An elderly Ukrainian, on his deathbed, ensures that this tradition lives on by requesting that his nephew carry on the tradition.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The spike in partisan activity after Koch's coma is referred to as "banditry" by the Germans. When they mention these resistance fighters in the Battles of Zhitomir, the Reichskommissariat calls them "freedom fighters" with quotations around the first word.

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