Oleksander Petrovych Hrekov was a general of the Imperial Russian Army and Ukrainian People's Army. He was a commander-in-chief of the army of the West Ukrainian National Republic during the Polish-Ukrainian War and architect of the Chortkiv offensive in which the Ukrainian Galician Army advanced 120 km (75 mi) against the Polish army.
Oleksander Hrekov
Oleksander Hrekov after arrest by NKVD 1948
The Ukrainian People's Army, also known as the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) or by the derogatory term Petliurivtsi, was the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1921). They were often quickly reorganized units of the former Imperial Russian Army or newly formed volunteer detachments that later joined the national armed forces. The army lacked a certain degree of uniformity, adequate leadership to keep discipline and morale. Unlike the Ukrainian Galician Army, the Ukrainian People's Army did not manage to evolve a solid organizational structure, and consisted mostly of volunteer units, not regulars.
Head of the Ukrainian Central Rada, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, at a military parade in Kiev in 1917
Ukrainian soldiers in Kiev in 1917
Soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Army in 1917
Kiev unit artillerymen with a howitzer