The Independence and civil war period 1917–1920

Ukraine declared itself autonomous within Russia on June 23, 1917 (the First Universal). The Central Rada proclaimed Ukrainian autonomy as the Ukrainian People's Republic (Ukrainska Narodnja Respublika) on November 20, 1917 (the Third Universal), but still in federation with Russia. After the Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd the Central Rada declared complete independence from Russia on January 22, 1918 (the Fourth Universal) with Mykhajlo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky as the chairman of the Ukrainian People's Republic Central Rada. Hrushevsky was the leader of the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party.

But during this period civil war went on between Ukrainian nationalists, bolsheviks and Russian white army so the control of the country varied often. The Bolsheviks held many of the cities in eastern Ukraine and had its headquarters in Kharkiv. Soviet troops under Mikhail Muravev's command also entered Kyiv on February 9, 1918 and then carried out brutal reprisals against the Ukrainian civilian population. After taking Kyiv the Bolsheviks launched an offensive in Right-Bank Ukraine, where they were engaged in battle mainly with Free Cossack forces. They moved into Volhynia where they took Proskuriv (now Khmelnytskyi), Zhmerynka, Koziatyn, Berdychiv, Rivne, and Shepetivka and forced the Ukrainians back to a Zhytomyr–Korosten–Sarny defensive line.

These Ukrainian stamps were issued by the independent Ukrainian government on July 18, 1918. They were the first real Ukrainian stamps. They have the value 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 shahiv. 100 shahiv equaled one hryvnia; two hryvni equaled one karbovanets, the equivalent of a ruble.

But following Ukraine's signature of the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the entry of German and Austrian troops into the conflict in late February as allies of the Central Rada the Bolsheviks were forced back. With a Ukrainian command of general K. Prisovsky and Symon Petljura the combined force rolled the Bolshevik troops out of Right-Bank Ukraine's centers, such as Zhytomyr, Berdychiv, Koziatyn, and Bucha, before regaining Kyiv on March 1, 1918. Through March and April the German and Austrian armies took control of Left-Bank Ukraine, and the troops of Petro Bolbochan and Volodymyr Sikevych took the Crimea and the Donets Basin. Alarmed by the changed military situation Soviet Russia had little choice but to comply with the articles of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and to sign a preliminary peace with the Ukrainian government on 12 June, 1918.

In the meantime a coup took place in Kyiv and a Ukrainian Hetmanate with a Ukrainian hetman, Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi, as the formal head of an independent Ukraine state (Ukrainska Derzhava) was formed on April 29, 1918. This was done with heavy German military support and Ukraine from now on was semi-occupied by German army under the military governor Hermann von Eichhorn (assassinated in Kyiv by a Ukrainian socialist on 30 July, 1918). The new Ukrainian state partly also had a pro-Russian orientation, even though a slow Ukrainianization of the state was started.

After the final capitulation of the Central Powers on 11 November 1918 and the withdrawal of their armies from Ukraine, the hetman's authority was in dramatic decline. Hoping to please the victorious Entente nations, Skoropadsky proclaimed, in his manifesto of 14 November, his intention to federate with a non-Bolshevik Russian state. On 14 December 1918, after German troops had abandoned Kyiv, Skoropadsky abdicated and fled to Germany. The Ukrainian People's Republic was once again proclaimed by the directory headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petlyura as supreme otaman.

During the short period of Ukrainian independence 1918–1919 Ukrainian money by the name of hryven and karbovantsiv was printed by Ukrainska Narodnja Respublika.

Meanwhile in the western Ukrainian lands that had formed part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian National Rada (UNRada) was formed in Lviv on 18–19 October 1918 and proclaimed a Ukrainian state on the territory of Galicia, northern Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia. It assumed power in Galicia on 1 November 1918, in the Ukrainian part of Bukovyna on 6 November and on 19 November in Transcarpathia. On 9 November the UNRada announced the establishment of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR) and formed a government, the State Secretariat of the Western Ukrainian National Republic, headed by Kost Levytsky. On 22 January 1919 the union of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR) with the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) was solemnly proclaimed in Kyiv.

But the Bolsheviks took advantage of the turbilence within the Ukrainian government and in December 1918 and January 1919 the Bolshevik expeditionary force captured Left-Bank Ukraine, and on 5 February it closed in on Kyiv, where it forced the Ukrainian government once more to flee from the capital. The Ukrainian People's Republic's directory then temporarily moved to Vinnytsia on February 5, 1919 and later further to the west. After regrouping the troops they started a campaign to re-take Kyiv. Soon they managed to regain many Right-Bank cities such as Vinnytsia (August 12), Khmilnyk, Yaniv, Kalynivka, and Starokostiantyniv (August 14), Berdychiv (August 19), and Zhytomyr (August 21). On August 31 the Ukrainian troops entered Kyiv, but only to discover that soldiers from Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army had arrived at the same time. Hostilities between the two forces were narrowly averted when the combined Ukrainian forces pulled out of the city. The Bolsheviks took advantage of the Ukrainians' standoff with Denikin's troops and soon managed to take the city.

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had been founded already on January 6, 1919 and by the end of the year they had managed to get control of most of the country. A last attempt to re-take control of Ukraine was made by the Ukrainian People's Republic under the president Symon Petljura in April 1920. With help of Polish troops they also managed to take Kyiv on May 7, but were forced to retreat in June. Poland and Soviet Russia concluded an armistice in October 1920, and in November the major Ukrainian Army formations were forced to retreat across the Zbruch River into Polish-held territory and to submit to internment. Although the partisan movement in Ukraine remained active until mid 1922.

On December 30, 1922 the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was a founding component of the Soviet Union.