Reichskommissariat Ukraine

The Reichskommissariat Ukraine (RKU; lit. 'Reich Commissariat of Ukraine') was an administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. It served as the German civilian occupation regime in the Ukrainian SSR and parts of the Byelorussian SSR, Russian SFSR, and eastern Poland during the Eastern Front of World War II.

Reichskommissariat Ukraine was established after early territory gains in Operation Barbarossa under the military administration of Army Group South Rear Area. The German civil administration was based in Rovno (Rivne) with Erich Koch serving as the only Reichskommissar during its existence.

Reichskommissariat Ukraine was part of the Generalplan Ost which included the expulsion, enslavement, and genocide of the native Ukrainian population, the genocide of the land’s Jewish population, the settlement of Germanic peoples, and the Germanization of the rest. These goals were pursued by SS and their Einsatzgruppen, with active participation of the Order Police battalions and Ukrainian collaborators.

It is estimated that 900,000 to 1.6 million Jews and 3 or 4 million non-Jewish Ukrainians were killed during the occupation; other sources estimate that 5.2 million Ukrainian civilians (of all ethnic groups) perished due to crimes against humanity, war-related disease, and famine, amounting to more than 12% of Ukraine's population at the time.

In 1943 and 1944, the Red Army recaptured most of Reichskommissariat Ukraine in their advance westwards. Koch was appointed Reichskommissar of Reichskommissariat Ostland in August 1944.

Reichskommissariat Ukraine dissolved on 10 November 1944.