to its political views. Political career In the summer of 1918 he convinced Pavlo Skoropadskyi, Hetman of Ukraine, to create a Special Platoon of Sich Riflemen, which was established in Bila Tserkva. In November 1918 he officially requested a void of the Federal Union with Russia from the Hetmanate and actively supported the forces of the Directoria in the (fought at , near Motovylivka, Kyiv Oblast) in the ousting of Skoropadskyi. According to Peter Kenez, "On December 14, after the Directorate arrived at an agreement with the Germans, who were anxious to complete their evacuation and therefore promised neutrality, the Army of the Directorate under General Konovalets entered the Ukrainian capital and met only sporadic resistance. Fifteen hundred Russian officers were sequestered in the Pedagogical Museum; their weapons were taken away and they were regarded as prisoners of war." On December 6, 1919, by the Order of the Head Otaman he demobilized his military formations. The same year he was taken prisoner and interned in a Polish POW camp in Lutsk, although he was released in the spring of 1920 and moved to Czechoslovakia. In 1920, as a result of the shattered struggle for Ukrainian independence, Konovalets set up a new organization capable of clandestine activities on the lands claimed by Ukrainians and controlled by Poland, Russian SFSR, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. Created in August of that year in Prague, the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) was aimed at armed resistance against Poland and Russia and was involved in the military training of youth and the prevention of any form of cooperation between Ukrainian and Polish authorities. The organization often resorted to terrorist attacks against Polish politicians as well as members of Ukrainian intelligentsia striving for cooperation with Poles (assassination of Sydir Tverdokhlib and Sofron Matviyas). The name of the organization was inspired by Piłsudski's Polish Military Organisation , which operated during the World War I. The foundation of the organization became the leaders of the Ukrainian Halych Army. After the end of the Polish–Soviet War and the battle for Lviv, Konovalets became the leader of the UVO in the city. However, after several acts of sabotage his organisation was broken by the police, and in December 1922 Konovalets fled the country. Exile and assassination During his exile years he lived in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In 1929 he took part in the first congress of Ukrainian nationalists in Vienna. During