The Russian Front (World War 3)

The Russian Front, also called the Russian War and the Eastern European Theater, was a major conflict between the Russian Coalition and the Infected across Russia, Europe and Central Asia. The conflict occured during World War 3, and lasted for fifteen years, from January 23, 2018 to October 7, 2033.
The Russian Front is considered to be the bloodiest front in World War 3, with a death toll of over 125 million people killed or infected. It established the Russian Coalition's dominance in Europe, while securing itself completely from Cordyceps fungi.
==The Coming Storm==
The Russian Coalition, founded three years after Outbreak Day, essentially unified Russia, all the nations of the Central Asian Union (CAU), and many former-Soviet states in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and the Caucasus regional nations. Russia served as the main parent state of the coalition, but was suffering from massive outbreaks of Cordyceps-infected from within. Belarus was on the brink of collapse due to multiple Cordyceps hotzones, while Ukraine was taking in too many refugees from neighboring states like Bulgaria.
Military strategists suggested that a multi-national war on the Infected hotzones would ease the amount of Infected. The Russian Coalition Council made the decision to commence Operation Molot on January 30, 2018.
==The first years==
The initial conflict foreshadowed what was to come: In cities all over the Russian Coalition, massive gunfights raged as military units, usually outnumbered, were slowly overwhelmed by the Infected. Ukraine enacted an effective yet brutal border policy in which incoming refugees were killed on sight. Chemical bombs were used in the first few months of the war during the Battles of Zhitomir and Donetsk, to little effect against the Infected.
Within a year, the elite units of the Russian Coalition's army pulled back, as many had sustained over 60% casualties. Cleanup missions within the secured zones were also costly, the Battle of Moscow lasting for over a year and depleting the majority of the civillain population. Bandits were rounded up and exterminated.
By the fifth year, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia were declared fully secure from Cordyceps. Russian forces were still fighting a brutal war in Siberia while the Baltic states and Belarus struggled near the brink of destruction.
==When the World Breathed Fire==
On July 24, 2024, the Russian Category-B Reserve units that hadn't been deployed yet were thrown into the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, assisted by the Ukrainian Guards Regiments. The city of Kharkiv was highly infested, as it was converted into a refugee center during the early outbreaks. Unfortunately, proper containment methods weren't put in use effectively during the outbreaks, and as such, Kharkiv became a hotzone of Infected.
The elite Category-A units of the Russian army were kept in reserve while the Category-B units, armed with vintage 1970's and 80's Soviet equipment, advanced into Kharkiv. The ferocity of the battle would be infamous. Three million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were killed during the battle, while over four million Infected were exterminated. 
At one point, the Russian military brought in thermobaric and incendiary artillery, with orders to blanket Lenin Prospekt. The resulting barrage leveled not only Lenin Prospekt, but nearly two square miles of surrounding areas and ignited a firestorm that raged for three days.
By the end of October, Kharkiv was fully purged of the Infected. 
==The Second Battle of Moscow==
Unfortunately for the Russians, a massive formation of mutated Cordyceps spores managed to reach Moscow from east Asia. As a result, many of the citizens there, despite wearing standard-issue gas masks, were infected. Russian military units converged on Moscow in a brutal battle. The Russian Coalition Council was evacuated to the city of Severomorsk. Many famous landmarks were destroyed during the battle. Even the Kremlin's West Wall was leveled when Russian tanks fired into hordes of Infected inside the Kremlin's walls.
The Second Battle of Moscow would last for a year, and cost the Russians nearly four million casualties, but in the end they managed to cleanse the city completely.
==The Final Years==
The closing years of the war were relatively less brutal than the previous years, with the securing of major cities including Minsk and Odessa being completed relatively fast.
The Battle of Kiev would finish with the beginning of constructing the Kiev Wall, a massive barrier that marked the divide between infected central Europe and secure eastern Europe.
==Casualties and impact==
Despite emerging triumphant, the Russian Coalition had suffered greatly. Over 80 million soldiers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Baltic states, and Central Asia died. 45 million civillains died or were infected by Cordyceps.
Many cities, including Moscow, were in ruins. However, a massive rejuvenation of spirit seemed to stir among the the citizens of the Russian Coalition.
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