to overthrowing the Bolsheviks in order to resume the war with Germany, Krasnov entered negotiations with the Germans who were occupying the Ukraine with the aim of securing their support, portraying himself as willing to serve as a pro-German warlord in the Don region, which made him the object of much distrust in the Allied governments. The Germans had set up the Ukrainian Zaporizhian Cossack Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi as the puppet leader of the Ukraine in April 1918, and Krasnov indicated his willingness to serve as a leader of a set-up similar to the Skoropadskyi regime. Through not willing to formally embrace Cossack separatism, Krasnov as the first elected Ataman of the Don Host for centuries favored more autonomy for the Don Host than the Host had enjoyed the Imperial period. With support from Germany, Krasnov equipped his army, which ousted the Soviets from the Don region in May–June 1918. By the middle of June, a Don Army was in the field with 40,000 men, 56 guns and 179 machine-guns. On 11 July 1918 Krasnov wrote a letter to Wilhelm II declaring that the Cossacks had always been friends of the Reich and went on to say: "The glorious Don Cossacks have been engaging in fighting for their freedom for two months and the fight resulted in their complete victory. The Cossacks have fought with a courage only equaled by that displayed against the English by a people of Germanic stock, the Boers". Krasnov's relations with the Volunteer Army became strained on account of his pro-German views; furthermore, he was only willing to have the Don Cossacks serve with the Volunteer Army if he was made Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the White forces, a demand that was rejected by Denikin and the other White generals. As the Don Cossack Host outnumbered the Volunteer Army until the summer of 1919, the Volunteer Army's commander, General Anton Denikin (in office 1918–1920), was at a disadvantage in his negotiations with Krasnov. Members of the White movement generally saw Krasnov as a petty and self-interested warlord, only willing to act if there was something of benefit to him on offer. Throughout the Russian Civil War, the Don Cossack Host kept its own identity, with the Don Cossacks serving under their elected colonels in their own regiments, apart from the rest of the White armies. Krasnov wanted Denikin to advance on and take the city