On August 20, 1941, Adolf Hitler issued a decree establishing the Reichskommissariat Ukraine — an administrative-territorial unit under the control of the Reich, intended to unite the Ukrainian people within a single administrative territory. 

At the time of its proclamation, Kyiv was still held by Soviet troops, so Rivne was chosen as the administrative center. On September 1, 1941, when the civilian administration under Erich Koch began its work, Volyn, Polissia, and the Right Bank came under its control.

As the front line advanced and lands were transferred from military to civilian authorities, the Reichskommissariat gradually incorporated the Kyiv, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. By 1943, its territory exceeded 339,000 square kilometers, accounting for approximately 56% of Ukraine's area within its internationally recognized borders and approximately 70% of the territory currently under Ukrainian control. 

According to the plans of the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, led by Alfred Rosenberg, in case of the successful military campaign, the borders of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine were to be significantly expanded eastward. It was to incorporate the Schwarzland Region, including the Kursk, Voronezh, Oryol, and Belgorod regions, as well as the Don and Lower Volga regions with the former Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, now part of the Russian Federation. 

At the same time, a significant portion of the western and southern lands, now part of Ukraine, was removed from the control of Erich Koch's civil administration. Part of Western Ukraine formed the "Galicia" district within the Generalь Government, while the Odessa region, the southern Vinnytsia and Mykolaiv regions, and Transnistria were transferred to the administration of allied Romania as part of the "Transnistria" governorate. Crimea also had a special status. 

Thus, when expanding the total territory of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, it was considered to shift its territorial borders eastward, compared to the current administrative borders of Ukraine. This was a common practice at the time. In the same way, after the end of World War II, the borders of Poland were shifted westward, as a result of which ethnically German regions went to Poland, and some regions that were controlled by Poland before the war went to the Soviet Union.

Today, we cannot speak with complete certainty about what the victory of the Reich in World War II would have meant for the Ukrainian people, but we do know the opposite: that the victory of the Soviet Union led to 46 years of Soviet occupation and the current war with Russia, which has already lasted 1,639 days, which is 222 days longer than the Reich's war against the Soviet Union lasted.