The Soviets fought quite hard in Ukraine. They lost entire army groups. Well over 1 million dead.
I believe that the Soviet Union lost about 20 million people, military plus civilian, in WWII. It was the largest number of any nation.
However, it should be remembered that Soviet military losses were significantly increased by strategies manifesting a reckless disregard on the part of many Soviet officers and officials for the lives of their own troops.