Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine – Central Powers)

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
(February 9, 1918)

Signing of the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the night between February 9 and 10, 1918. Sitting in the middle from the left: Count Ottokar Czernin, Richard von Kühlmann and Vasil Radoslavov
Signed	1918 February 9
Location	Brest-Litovsk, Grodno Governorate (German occupation)
Signatories	Austria-Hungary  Bulgaria  Germany  Ottoman Empire Ukraine
Languages	Bulgarian · German · Hungarian · Ottoman Turkish · Ukrainian

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918 between the Russian SFSR and the Central Powers, but prior to that on February 9, 1918, the Central Powers signed an exclusive protectorate treaty (German: Brotfrieden, "peace for bread") with the Ukrainian People's Republic as part of the negotiations that took place in Brest-Litovsk, Grodno Governorate (now Brest, Belarus) recognizing the sovereignty of the Ukrainian republic. Although not formally annexing the territory of the former Russian Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary secured food-supply support in return for providing military protection. The Quadruple Alliance recognized Ukraine as a neutral state.

Because of the civil unrest in the Russian Republic culminating in the October Revolution the Ukrainian People's Republic declared its independence under the government of the General Secretariat of Ukraine. In its declaration the General Secretariat announced elections for the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly to be held on January 9, 1918 and the first convocation on January 22 of the same year.

On December 17, 1917 Vladimir Lenin as the head of the Sovnarkom released an ultimatum in which he accused the Central Rada of disorganizing the frontlines, stopping "any troops going into the region of the Don, the Urals, or elsewhere", sheltering political enemies such as the members of the Cadet party and ones who sided with Kaledine, as well as a requirement to "put an end to the attempts to crush the armies of the Soviet and of the Red Guard in Ukraine". Lenin gave 24 hours' notice to the government of what he called "the independent and bourgeois Republic of the Ukraine" to respond. Having Soviet armies already in Ukraine, the government of Ukraine had to act quickly to preserve the sovereignty of the state.