The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an exclusive protectorate treaty (, "peace for bread") signed on 9 February 1918 between the Central Powers and the Ukrainian People's Republic, recognizing the latter's sovereignty. It was part of the same negotiations that took place in Brest-Litovsk, Grodno Governorate (now Brest, Belarus) that also produced the separate treaty of the same name between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Central Powers on 3 March 1918 . Formerly a territory of the then-defunct Russian Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary secured food-supply support in return for providing military protection. The Central Powers recognised Ukraine as a neutral state. Background 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, which announced elections for the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly to be held on 9 January 1918 and the first convocation on January 22 of the same year. On 17 December 1917, Vladimir Lenin, as the head of the Sovnarkom, released an ultimatum in which he accused the Central Rada of disorganising the front lines, 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 those who had sided with Kaledine and requiring to "put an end to the attempts to crush the armies of the Soviet and of the Red Guard in Ukraine". Lenin gave twenty-four hours' notice to the government of what he called "the independent and bourgeois Republic of the Ukraine" to respond. Since Soviet armies were already in Ukraine, the government of Ukraine had to act quickly to preserve the sovereignty of the state. The Ukrainian Central Rada expressed a desire for a peace treaty with foreign countries and its recognition worldwide. Since the representatives of the British and the French Empires did not wish to recognise Ukrainian sovereignty, considering it as a part of their major ally, the Russian Empire, the treaty gave a chance for some recognition in the face of the Central Powers. On 1 January 1918, a Ukrainian delegation, headed by Vsevolod Holubovych, arrived at Brest-Litovsk. The initial delegation beside Mykola Liubynsky, Oleksandr Sevriuk, and Mykola Levytsky included Mykhailo Poloz. Peace negotiations The peace negotiation was initiated on 3 December 1917 by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic government, represented by a delegation