Capture of Kiev by the White Army

In the first week of August 1919, the General Alexander Kutepov-led White 1st Army Corps struck at the junction of the 13th and 14th Soviet armies. The Red Front was broken, both armies were forced to retreat deep into Ukraine. The troops of the VSYUR wedged into the formed gap. The unified corps under the command of Bredov rushed towards Kiev, which housed the staff and logistics units of the 12th Army.

The Bolsheviks evacuated the city without a serious fight, after shooting hundreds of residents, detained by the Cheka in the last days of Bolshevik power in the city.

From the west, simultaneously with the beginning of the White offensive, Ukrainian troops began their offensive.

The Ukrainian army under the command of General Anton Kraus, consisted of the Galician Army's I and III corps and the UPR Army's Zaporizhzhia Corps (without the 2nd Brigade), totalling up to 18,000 bayonets and sabers.

Anticipating the inevitability of meeting White Army troops, the Ukrainian Army commander Mykola Yunakiv ordered to avoid entering into armed conflict with them.

The Ukrainian Army arrived first at Kiev and occupied the city by the end of the day of August 30, after some skirmishes with rearguard Red Army troops. On August 31 a victory parade was planned at 16:00 on the Duma Square in the presence of Petlyura.

Due to carelessness, and because intelligence reported that the White Army would not be able to be in Kiev before September 3, not all bridges over the Dnieper had been secured. However, the White Army's vanguard had already reached the Kiev suburbs by the evening of August 30.

The next day, up to 3,000 Volunteers began to advance towards the city center, disarming all the Ukrainian detachments they met on the way. When the Ukrainian troops marched solemnly in column to the Duma Square, the advanced sections of the Volunteers, under the command of N.I. Stakelberg, entered the city over the Chain Bridge. Around noon, the Ukrainian units were located on the Duma Square near the Kiev City Council, on the balcony of which the Ukrainian flag was hoisted. Having found out that White Volunteers were already in Kiev, Petliura canceled his arrival to the city and gave the order to cancel the planned parade. The commander of the Galician Army, Myron Tarnavsky also left the city. Around two o'clock in the afternoon the Volunteers arrived on the Duma square. The commander of the squadron of Volunteers, introducing himself to the general, asked permission for his unit to take part in the parade and install a Russian tricolor next to the Ukrainian flag already posted on the Duma. On both requests, general Anton Kraus agreed.

But when Colonel Volodymyr Salsky of the Zaporizhzhia Corps arrived and saw the Russian tricolor on the Duma, he gave the order to bring that flag down. One of his soldiers climbed the balcony, tore off the Russian flag and threw it to the ground in the dust under the hooves of the horses. An enraged Volunteer cavalrist tried to cut down Colonel Salsky, but was killed himself. This led to an exchange of fire between the White Volunteers and the Ukrainians. Several soldiers were killed or wounded and the Ukrainians hastily fled from the Duma Square. The news of the fight spread quickly, and throughout Kiev Volunteers began to disarm and take prisoner Ukrainian units. In total, up to 3,000 fighters of the Ukrainian army were disarmed or captured, including the headquarters of the III Corps. Some 4,000 Ukrainians soldiers, under the command of Colonel Mikitka, concentrated around the railway station, waiting for orders from their command, but no orders were received.

Kraus tried to negotiate with Bredov, but Bredov stated that "Kiev, the mother of Russian cities, was never Ukrainian and will never be, and that there can not be any negotiations with the delegation of the UPR army." Bredov demanded Kraus to immediately and without any conditions, withdraw all Ukrainian troops from Kiev. Approximately at two o'clock in the morning on September 1, 1919, an agreement was reached. Kraus signed an order for the withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops from Kiev for a day's march (about 25 kilometers) to the West. The Ukrainian troops were not to undertake any hostile actions against the Volunteers, and could not take more from Kiev than they brought with them. The parties mutually exchanged prisoners and returned the weapons of the disarmed detachments.