Editing Ukrainian Insurgent Army

According to the UPA, violence was a valid option to obtain the independence of Ukraine, and they adopted a guerrilla warfare policy similar to that of partisan groups. It is said that in 1944, the UPA numbered up to 20,000 soldiers, and its military campaigns were considered the largest armed movement in history against a communist regime until the Mujahideen campaigns in the [[Soviet-Afghan War]].

During the war, the UPA became known for its heinous war crimes against Polish civilians. The UPA adopted a policy of massacring and deporting the Polish populations of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, in an attempt of ethnic cleansing in order to annex Polish territory to the future Ukrainian State. When the UPA reached Polish towns, men were tortured and burned alive, women were gang-raped, children were pounded with axes, and babies were impaled on bayonets. It is said that the Catholic priests were also crucified and the villages burned. On occasions, the UPA partnered with Ukrainian farmers in Polish areas to help them with their ethnic cleansing. An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Poles were killed by the UPA.

The UPA also helped perpetuate [[The Holocaust]], as the UPA members infiltrated the Nazi Army to obtain military training, and under those conditions, they helped the Nazis kill Jews, and the UPA is believed to be responsible for the murder than 200,000 Polish Jews.

The UPA currently has a rather controversial legacy. On the one hand, several Ukrainians see the UPA as heroic fighters who fought against the Soviet regime to establish the independence of Ukraine, and in several western cities of the country there are several monuments dedicated to the UPA. On the other hand, several Poles and Ukrainians from cities in the east and south of the country consider them as war criminals and there are several monuments dedicated to the victims of the UPA. Some Polish organizations and historians regard the massacres carried out by the UPA as [[genocide]].