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After World War I, the area was assigned to Poland, which did not fulfill promises of local autonomy and discriminated against the indigenous Ukrainian population. During World War II, a Ukrainian reistance movement began in the region (UPA, Ukrainska Povstanska Armia) which then spread to other regions of Ukraine. UPA units first fought the Nazis, then the Soviets heroically for many years. Tragically, some local units of this army engaged in bloody sporadic but widespread efforts to kill the local population of the Polish settlements in Volyn, which resulted in the violent deaths of 30,000-60,000 Poles in the region. Local Polish military units retaliated, killing around 15,000 or more from among the native Ukrainian population.
The region was re-united with the rest of Ukraine by a unilateral decision of the Soviet authorities in the immediate aftermath of World War II.