European theatre of World War III

The European theatre of World War III was an area of heavy fighting across Europe and the main theatre of war during the Third World War, stretching along the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and the Balkans concurrent with the Second Bosnian War to Northern Italy, with several isolated skirmishes in the Caucasus. In 2022, several post-Soviet states in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan came under the command of the All Russian Federation, with aims to reorganize the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) of the 20th century into a new confederation. Following the outbreak of war on 13 May, the Russian Army launched the Invasion of the Baltics, swiftly taking over the region in a matter of two months, then gained control of Ukraine through several breakthroughs in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Meanwhile, the underground secessionist movement in northern Italy was purely financially motivated, but soon became supported by the Russians, eventually launching the Second Italian Civil War. Serbia, already having tense relations with the new Euro-American Union and the West in general, opened the Second Bosnian War by invading Bosnia and Herzegovina, intending to unite with Russian-occupied Ukraine and the Northern Italians into a new European superstate.
Between 2022 and 2025, both sides: the Euro-American Union (a union state of NATO and the European Union) and its allies and the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization; also commonly known as the "post-Soviet states") and its allies engaged in heavy combat that was defined by its excessively brutal nature, including the use of illegal chemical and biological weapons, strategic bombings, entrenchments, secret machine gun placements, barbed wire, hypersonic weaponry, and cyberwarfare, earning the theatre the nickname of the "Red War" in Europe.
The war in Europe concluded with the Second Battle of Archangelsk on 30 September 2027, causing a sudden collapse of the Russian armies that was made apparent by subsequent defeats in the Balkans and the secessionist movement in Northern Italy becoming a lost cause between those involved. The Russian government surrendered on 25 October, with terms of peace becoming settled with the Treaty of Cape May on 1 November.
== Pre-war events ==
=== Archangelsk Declaration (2022) ===
In January 2022, several leaders from the post-Soviet states of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan gathered in secrecy in the city and administrative center of Archangelsk to establish a new military alliance as a direct successor to the CSTO and as opposition to the newfound Euro-American Union. The Crimean Peninsula, north of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe, had previously been annexed by Russia in 2014, which later had devastating effects on neighboring Ukraine, a post-Soviet state itself in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution and the Euromaidan. The group also discussed accelerating Russian military involvement in the region and in supporting the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. Vladimir Putin, then President of Russia, privately declared a “reemergence” of the Soviet Union among former states to counter global Euro-American hegemony. Following the resulting Archangelsk Agreement, governance of Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan was handed entirely to Russia, including a secret clause partitioning Ukraine, Romania, and Poland, all three either former Soviet or Warsaw Pact states.
In April, Siberian guerrilla leader Mikhail Voronin gave certain post-Soviet government officials a special "mission briefing," during which it was revealed that sleeper agents appointed by Vladimir Putin had been stationed in cities across Europe, including Warsaw, Brussels, Paris, London, Rome, and Bucharest, either gathering intel or committing espionage and sabotage against enemy governments. Terrorist attacks were carried out by these operatives, distracting Europe and placing its citizens in hysteria. Meanwhile, with the United States distracted by internal political unrest formerly under the presidency of Donald Trump and increasing tension between Democrats and Republicans, Russia began to mobilize more and more troops in its homeland, but also in occupied territories of Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Armenia, becoming increasingly militaristic. Voronin is known as the "Che Guevera of the 21st century".
=== Establishment of the Euro-American Union ===
As Russia grew increasingly militaristic throughout 2021, including staging several flag border incidents against Ukraine, Georgia, and Bulgaria through its occupied territories in Crimea north of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe, with these countries reporting intensive movement of troops and equipment from Russia into Crimea, NATO and the European Union expressed concern, but did not receive a response on the matter, not even denial. The Ukrainian military also reported unfamiliar troops baring Armenian and Belarussian flags on their uniforms. Footage had also been released on Russian children being trained for warfare, although it is unclear if these were scripted or real at all.
On 15 June, Vladimir Putin, along with leaders from several post-Soviet states and Mikhail Voronin, held a televised conference in Moscow to express their desires to bring the countries of the CSTO together into a new confederation (the media was unaware of the meeting in Archangelsk at the time). Many purported this "new union" to be an attempt to reinstate the Soviet Union. This conference was vehemently criticized by NATO and the European Union, claiming that it "threatened the security of Europe" and it will "undoubtedly ignite a conflict, as this was the exact reason NATO was created in the first place." 
As a result of this conference, leaders from NATO and the European Union met in Brussels in September to discuss what they deemed a rising threat from this new Soviet Union, coupled with the conflict in Ukraine and the Syrian Civil War. They also discussed the rise of anti-NATO and anti-EU sentiment in North America and Europe, feeling that NATO had lost its purpose, as many declared this new Soviet Union to not be a threat and that the two organizations were being used to silence protests movements in Europe of ethnic Russians, Serbs, Ukrainians, etc. and that the European Union, especially issues regarding EU solidarity, threats to the Schengen Area of Free Movement, and the controversial Brexit vote, was ineffective. In response, an overwhelming majority vote to replace both NATO and the European Union was cast, but instead they decided on a merger of both organizations based on military and cultural values between Europe and North America: the Euro-American Union, as the United States rebuilt ties with Europe under Joe Biden, and felt a new sense of entitlement and passion for their European counterparts. 
=== Ethnic Soviet protests and further tensions ===
As the two opposing superstates emerged in Europe, tensions grew as the Euro-American Union imposed a tough approach on the Soviet Union as the latter increased its militarism in occupied regions of Ukraine. The United States sought to provide support to the Russian opposition that had led to several protests in Russia against the government of Vladimir Putin. Although both sides were trying to prevent a potential war, the Soviet Union attempted to prevent the Euro-American Union from becoming involved in any conflict it saw as an immediate threat to its new empire, including in the Russo-Ukrainian War and stalling American support for the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria.
In September of 2021, unrest occurred in Europe, including xenophobia and geographic discrimination against ethnic Soviets and Serbs living in Euro-American states, with anti-EAU protests occurring in response for "turning a blind eye to these attacks". This itself sparked violent unrest in the forms of riots and even isolated skirmishes between civilian nationalist militias with their own form of Pan-European identity. In response, the governments of both sides vowed to avenge the victims of these attacks in their own separate ways.
This unrest occurred for several months leading into 2022. In January, tensions became so violent that the United Nations imposed sanctions on almost the entirety of Europe (with the addition of the United States and Canada in North America). Following the sanctions, Putin and Voronin announced that the Soviet Union was considering a missile test in which the missiles would land either in the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea, which would've been violations of international sovereignty of Turkey, the Balkans, and Scandinavia. Failed negotiations resulted in further sanctions.
== 2022 ==
=== War breaks out in Eastern Europe: Russian Invasion of the Baltics ===
Tensions escalated further in 2022, stoking fears about a possible war after the Euro-American Union called for Ukrainian military personnel to allow the placement of troops in its country and associated territories to expel Soviet forces from it. They also suggested the intensification of military campaigns against the Soviet occupiers. Outside troop movements and the building of military equipment and bases outraged the Soviets, who demanded that the Euro-American Union withdrawal from Ukraine or they would be met with bloody conflict.
=== Second Bosnian War ===
=== Euro-American Retreat: The Fall of Estonia and Ukraine ===
== 2023 ==
=== North Italy Secedes: The Second Italian Civil War ===
Category:SwordOfLands
Category:World War III
Category:Part of World War
Category:Warfare
Category:Theatre