In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, drafted into the Imperial Russian Army. Took part in battles with the troops of the German Empire and was wounded three times.

In 1917, when the tsarist regime fell in Russia, was in Rivne in Volyn. Russian troops stationed in the Volyn region supported the new revolutionary government in Russia. Sided then with the Active Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic UPR, then forming and commanded by i.a. Symon Petliura, a Ukrainian politician sympathetic to Poland. The UPR was recognized by the Central Powers, i.e. the German Empire and the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy, which on 09.02.1918 in Brest‐Litovsk, concluded a peace treaty with it, ceding the Chełm region with the city of Chełm and part of Podlasye in exchange for one million tons of grain. In a secret clause, Austro‐Hungary committed to establishing Eastern Galicia, along with Lviv and Przemyśl, as a separate (autonomous) crown land of the monarchy. This act of imperial German policy, without any agreement with the Poles, was to bring tragic consequences in the future.

In 1939, in independent Poland, ministered in the small village of Shtun, administratively belonging to the Luboml county in the Volyn voivodeship. At that time, Shtun had a population of c. 1,000, c. 96% Orthodox Ukrainians, several dozen Roman‐Catholic Poles, and a dozen or so Jews.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the outbreak of World War II, in accordance with the provisions of the German–Russian, genocidal Molotov–Ribbentrop „friendship” pact, Volyn was occupied by the Russians. The Russians forcibly incorporated all Orthodox priests — previously belonging to the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PAOC — into the Russian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, the village became part of the Germ. Kreisgebiet Luboml (Eng. Lyuboml County) in the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien (Eng. General District Volyn‐Podolya) of an administrative entity called the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat of Ukraine).

A division occurred among the Orthodox clergy at that time. One of the factions of the Orthodox Church formed was the Autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church AUOC, the canonical proclamation of which was announced on 18.08.1941, by the synod of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops in Pochayiv Lavra. The AUOC strove for autocephaly, i.e. independence, but recognizing the supremacy of the Moscow Patriarchate. On 08‐10.02.1942, however, another group of Orthodox bishops announced the establishment of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church UAOC, under the auspices of the PAOC, which in turn, as early as 1940, had made an act of loyalty to the German genocide killer Hans Frank, Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. In the territory of the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the bishops of the UAOC considered themselves the successors of the PAOC, whose autocephaly had been granted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Based on the rather fragmentary information about his fate in the last years of his life, it seems highly likely that he joined the UAOC, becoming its ardent advocate.

Prob. in 1942, the Jews living in Shtun were deported — prob. to Luboml. On 06.12.1941, the Germans established a ghetto there, essentially open, without a surrounding fence or wall, but with a number of sentries manned by Ukrainian members of the collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), referred to as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma. Schuma's task was to prevent Jews from escaping from the ghetto. At the turn of 1941/1942, the Germans began implementing the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question). The first Jews, c. 900, the Germans, with the help of Ukrainians from Schuma, murdered in Luboml already in the summer of 1941, but the final Germ. Aktion (Eng. Action) of the ghetto liquidation took place on 01.10.1942. Ukrainian policemen from Schuma and German gendarmes herded c. 3,000‐4,000 Jews to the market square and from there, under arms, led them c. 3.5 km to the northeast, near the village of Birky, where a few months earlier the Jews had been forced to dig a series of pits. There, on the banks of these pits, the Jews were ordered to undress and then they were all shot.

A few months later, in 02.1943 Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, who in 1941 was a member of the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Special Group Nightingale) — a unit of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) that took part in the German attack on Russians in 1941, accused of participating in the Jewish pogrom in Lviv in 1941 — and later a member of the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 (Eng. 201st Protection team Battalion) — responsible for the murder of Jews and civilians in the territory of Belarus — issued an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.

It was the de facto signal for the commencement of the «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”.

Immediately thereafter, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and Schuma, to desert and join the UPA ranks. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so. Such was the case i.a. with the 103rd Schuma Battalion, stationed in Matsiiv, c. 25 km from Shtun, which on 26.03.1943, joined the OUN/UPA in its entirety. One of its members was the génocidaire Ivan Klymchak, nom de guerre Ukr. „Lysy” (Eng. „Bald”) who, together with his battalion, participated in the murder of 1,512 Jews from the Turiisk ghetto and prob. in the liquidation of the Matsiiv ghetto.

The tactics of the genocidal Ukrainians were detailed in an order issued by the UPA commander in Volyn — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, in 06.1943. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, explained and ordered: „We should carry out a major operation to eliminate the Polish element. When the German troops withdraw, we should use this opportune moment to eliminate the entire male population aged 16 to 60 […] We cannot lose this fight, and we must weaken Polish forces at all costs. Forest villages and villages located near forest massifs should disappear from the face of the earth”.

The choice of Volyn for the beginning of the «Genocidium Atrox» and the genocide of Poles by the OUN/UPA was not accidental. Firstly, Volyn in pre‐war Poland had prob. the smallest percentage of Polish population in the entire country. Secondly, it was probably the least economically developed voivodeship of Poland, which was caused by the deliberate policy of the Russians in the 19th century, ruling then in part of partitioned Poland — the direct route to the heart of Russia, to Moscow, runs through Volyn, so no roads were laid there, no bridges built, no marshy areas around the Pripyat drained, no industry located, and no schools established. Thirdly, and finally, it was Volyn (and the Chełm region) that was recognized by the Central Powers in the aforementioned Treaty of Brest‐Litovsk of 09.02.1918, as part of the short‐lived Ukrainian state of the UPR — in 1943 the Germans simply fulfilled the obligations undertaken at that time. And Volyn was drenched in Polish blood. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by the Ukrainians — with German passivity — in an extremely barbaric manner. Hundreds of villages were burned.

Sources indicate that was a sympathizer of the genocidal Ukrainian organization OUN/UPA. His son even became a „regional leader of the OUN”, and his daughter a „member of the OUN women's network”.

In 06.1943, the commander of the UPA „Turiv” Military District, covering the western part of the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien, including the Germ. Kreisgebiet Luboml, the genocidal Yuri Stelmashchuk, nom de guerre „Rudyi”, received orders from the aforementioned criminal Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, to murder all Poles in his area of operations. Preparations for the next phase of the «Genocidium Atrox» genocide began.

Then — according to Polish sources — on the Orthodox feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of 29.08.1943, was to „consecrate knives, scythes, sickles and axes and distribute these tools to "faithful sons of Orthodoxy" to murder "Poles to the hilt" with them”. On the same day, in the village of Chmykos, c. 5 km away, the OUN/UPA „together with Ukrainian peasants from the surrounding villages murdered c. 200 Poles”. The next day, „a dozen or so Polish families” were also killed — „only one family managed to escape”— in his parish village of Shtun. The murder was allegedly led by his above‐mentioned son.

On 30.08.1943, the OUN/UPA kureń, under the command of the aforementioned Ivan Klymchak, nom de guerre „Lysy”, with the significant participation of Ukrainian peasants, including those from his Shtun parish, attacked two Polish villages — Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka, c. 18 km from Shtun, on the other side of the Luboml town. In an extremely barbaric, animalistic way, the Ukrainians murdered over 1,100 Poles, including 446 children. Witness e.g. recalled: „People shot in a hurry were often hit wide of the mark. The wounded jumped up convulsively and fell to the ground again. They were finished off, but most often they died in agony. From one group rushed to the execution site, after a series of shots, a little girl, maybe six years old, jumped up and started screaming loudly: "Mommy, mommy", but her mother was already dead. Seeing this, the Ukrainian raised his rifle and shot at her. The girl fell, but immediately got up and, screaming, started walking over the corpses, falling and getting up. [The UPA] shot again. This time three times. The girl kept getting up and screaming. The angry Ukrainian ran up to her and finished her off with his rifle butt”.

At the end of 08.1943, Ukrainians also murdered a dozen or so families living in the small village of Vyzhhiv, c. 5 km from Shtun.

A witness described: „Cousin Amelia Steczuk, […] a four‐year‐old girl, survived her own death. Amelia, with her sister Bronislava and her parents, lived in Vyzhhiv. At the end of 08.1943, the village was finally cleared of Poles. This event probably surprised the girls" parents while they were working in the field, where they immediately hid. The daughters were at home or nearby at the time. Both daughters were to be killed by being hit in the back of the head with a shovel. After being hit by the perpetrator, they were thrown into a potato hole and covered with earth. After an unspecified time Amelia, who was lying on top of Bronislava, woke up and climbed to the surface. Dazed, she reached the Ukrainian farm. Due to the head injury and shock, she lost her speech”.

And it was in this village, „cleansed of Poles”, that he hid. Ukrainian nationalist sources deny this version of events, but admit that from then on he hid there — with his wife and two younger children.

Hid because the Polish Clandestine State was notified of his activities. And it began to search for him. In particular, he was sought by a partisan unit of the Polish, independence–oriented, resistance Home Army AK, under the command of Casimir Filipowicz, nom de guerre „Kord”, commander of the Luboml Circle of the AK Kovel Inspectorate, which was part of the AK)Volyn District.

Filipowicz's group, c 500 partisans strong, after the intensification of Ukrainian genocidal actions, began i.a. organize local Polish self‐defense units. As a preemptive strike, it carried out also i.a. an attack on Vyzhhiv.

His hideout was found there.

On 19.12.1943 — three days after his birthday — partisans, dressed „in Ukrainian fighters' outfits”, broke into his hideout and „after torture” executed him, his daughter, and his father (who was reportedly beheaded).

The „Kord” unit, by the end of 1943, had destroyed all OUN/UPA bases in Luboml county — sources state that the county became „free of UPA units”. And Filipowicz, with his unit, joined the 27th Volyn Infantry Division of the AK and fought in it until its disbandment on 25.07.1944 — when the treacherous Russians, alongside whom the Division had been operating until then, i.a. taking part in the liberation of Lubartów, surrounded Polish troops, after which some of the soldiers were sent to Russian Gulag concentration camps. Avoided arrest then, but did not avoid it after the war, when the „reward” for fighting against the Ukrainian genociders was the prisons of the Commie‐Nazi Russian republic of prl.

And on 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. In 12.2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in a resolution, recognized génocidaire Dmitry Klachkivsky as „the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Volyn and a participant in the struggle for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century”. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis”, the schools were named after them. Genocider Yuri Stelmashchuk also has his own monument, although he has received no honorary awards because after being captured by the Russians in 1945, sang like a canary during interrogations, i.e. snitching on OUN/UPA „gentlemen” as crazy.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”