 Vitovsky started his active military career in 1914 participating in mountain battles in the Carpathians, and was an ideologist of Ukrainian military political thought.In 1916-1917 he was a Ukrainian military commissar in Volhynia, and organized Ukrainian schools there.Vitovsky also was co-founder of the Striletsky Found, and published the official newspaper of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, "Shliakhy" ('The Pathways').