Russo-NATO War (Samuelfelt)

The Russo-NATO War, was an early 21st century military conflict, between NATO, Russia, and Ukraine. The war was the first time that Russia had to face NATO head on, and would end with in a complete collapse in the Russian Government, and the death of Vladimir Putin, resulting in a strengthened NATO, and fully liberated Ukraine.
==== Pre-war: Russian aggression ====
Before the conflict, Russia was already ramping up military and political hostility. In 2008, The Russo-Georgian war became the first European war of the 21st century. The conflict was overall a Russian victory, with Georgia loosing some territory, and the war would quickly be followed up with and insurgency in the North Caucasus, which would ultimately be a lower level armed conflict. This belligerent geopolitical behavior worried Western nations, and caused a growing distrust of Russia under the control Of Vladimir Putin. 
The event which would truly be a catalyst to direct armed conflict with NATO, was the Russo-Ukrainian war, which began in February of 2014, following Ukraine's "Revolution of dignity". Russia fully annexed Crimea. and helped back Pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region. the conflict saw many Naval, Cyber, land incidents, alongside growing international tensions. This would all culminate in a full scale Russian invasion of the country on February 24th, 2022. 
This full scale invasion would prove to be an extremely important and historical date, as all of the west banded together, with mass protests in support of Ukraine all around, The US, Canada, and Europe. A series of extremely harsh sanctions were placed on Russia, causing the country and it's currency to essentially collapse within a month. NATO became extremely unified, as Finland and Sweden put in a bid to join the military defense force. The United States began making multi-billion dollar defense bills to provide aid, as the Russians were swiftly pushed out of the North, and focused all efforts in the south. 
Despite minor victories, the Russians proved their incompetence, and grew increasingly desperate. Russia began to ramp up rhetoric in relation to a nuclear attack, causing growing fear in the West. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, began to warn that this would possibly directly invoke NATO, along with growing mentions of a third world war. However, going into 2023, the news and western populace began to shift it's focus away from the war, and focus more on dire internal issues, despite this, the war was only getting more desperate, as America and Germany began shipping in tanks. Despite continuing to put up a fight, Russia was certainly beginning to loose the conflict. 
==== March 18th, 2023: The War begins ====
By March of 2023, the conflict had reached a stale point, with the winter harsh, neither side could make major advances. Despite this, the ball remained firmly in Ukraine's court, as minor progress was made, and with more foreign aid, they continued to make minor victories. Russia continued drafting inmates and other offenders in order to beef up their military, with infamous paramilitaries like the wagner group being deemed as a terrorist organization by many Western countries. Stories continued to come out about Russian soldiers committing various war crimes, and as it seemed the country grew weaker and weaker, things were about to change.
On March 18th, against all odds, Russia used a tactical nuclear weapon in Southern Ukraine to repel Ukrainian forces. This action quickly resulted in mass upheaval, and NATO instantly called an emergency gathering to discuss the actions that must be taken. Despite previous statements of NATO intervening, it remained unclear what was to happen. It was decided by NATO that a direct intervention was needed, however it was stated that this would be a conventional war by NATO, and that nuclear weapons would not be used. Most still were concerned of the intervention, with many saying it was uncalled for, and many others saying it was unsafe as it could result in a full nuclear exchange. Despite these worries, the majority of the populace thought the war was reasonable, and plans for the ground intervention were almost instantly being laid out.
==== March 21th, 2023: The Air war begins ====
Despite it taking some time to send troops in, the aerial bombardment began fast. Allied aircraft carriers quickly sailed to the black sea, where several fighter jet squadrons were sent on consistent bombing runs, whether it be supply ships, ground troops, tanks, etc. The Russian air power proved to not be able to compare to America, England and France's airforce/naval aviation, and Russian forces instantly began to take serious hits from the constant barrage over air fire. 
There was originally a great deal of controversy over where NATO soldiers should've been sent in first. Ukrainian forces wanted airborne units to be sent in, as this could be done quicker and get more troops into the dangerous areas where aid was needed, while most NATO countries agreed that allied ground forces should be sent in by larger numbers, on the ground, as this would allow more troops to be sent in quickly. In the end, an agreement was made to start the first major counter-offensive by taking the entire Kherson region , and then progressing south, in order to open a direct gateway to the Donbas, and hopefully Crimea. 
==== April 1st, 2023: The Kherson Push ====
As allied NATO and Ukrainian troops prepared for a major confrontation, they gathered directly to the north of Kherson, in order to push in from all sides, the campaign started with American B-52, B-1, and B-2 bombers the day before, carrying out a major bombing campaign over the entire Kherson region. As the armies moved in, multiple small towns of, Nova Kakhovka, Kostohryzove, Hola Prystan', and more with little resistance. After around three days, NATO-Ukrainian forces incurred very little casualties, until on April 16th once they reached Skadovs'k, a small town which ended up being heavily fortified. 
The Battle Of Skadovs'k would prove to be one of the deadliest in the war. Upon the initial push, the northwest of the city was seized, however the casualties were already at around 500 soldiers, an extreme amount for a small region such as this. Allied forced remained hesitant to continue, as there were a high number of civilians in the region, although they would in the end have to, as Russian shelling continued, and there were fears of being hit from the North. Following almost 4 hours of A-10 close air strikes, the allied forces continued and managed to seize the town. An American casualty report stated that approximately 1079 soldiers were lost, a crushing number. Despite this, they had now managed to take the whole region of Kherson and were now heroized by many Ukrainian citizens. 
==== April, 29th, 2023: The Split Strategy ====
The, "Split Strategy", was first proposed by the Supreme Allied Commander, Christopher G. Cavoli. A strategy for the war in which NATO forces would split up into two groups, one which would take Crimea whilst another would take the Donbas and Eastern Occupied regions back. Despite many Army Officers disagreeing with this strategy, it was decided following the key victory of the Kherson region that the NATO and Ukrainian forces were more then capable. 
Task Force A was now set with the task of taking the city of Melitopol' to the east, whilst Task Force B was set with the task of making a successful push into Crimea. Task Force A quickly made moves towards the city however Russian forces were strong and were able to keep them outside the city, causing a temporary hold up, as several smaller skirmishes occurred outside of the city, although Western air power would allow a victor in this fight. After around 7 hours of slow progression, allied forces made it to the outer regions of the city where they were instantly held up with a barrage of shelling and gunfire. Along with this, a high amount of anti-air equipment in Crimea meant that Air power was mostly focused on aiding Task Force B by eliminating this Anti-Air Equipment, resulting in the first time an F-15 had ever been taken out in combat. As NATO forces kept pushing through the city, they finally cornered the Russians, where they had to surrender, resulting in a fairly costly victory with many civilians injured or killed. 
 
Task Force B made steady progress, taking a series of small town in North Crimea before The Battle of Krasnoperekopsk, where after a series of extremely brutal Russian charges forced the to retreat back to the small town of Pochetne outside of the main city to regroup before another attack could be attempted. The night following, a series of attacks by the totally new B-21 Raider would take out many main Russian fortifications and allow NATO and Ukrainian troops to take the city the next day. 
==== May 14th: Russia looses the Naval War ====
By early May, the Russian Navy had been mostly destroyed, as they did not have a way to combat to US Stealth Submarine Fleet which "terrorized" the Russian Navy in the early stages of the war. By May 14th, the Russian Navy had two ships left, the Severomorsk, and Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Gorshkov, both of which were sunk within 15 hours by the USS Toledo, a fast attack submarine, This was an extremely important symbolic event, and the commander of the submarine was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Biden.
==== May 25th: The Zaporizhia Raids. ====
Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Dontesk was a highly contentious region, for it held not only the largest nuclear power plant in the whole war zone, but the city of Mariupol, which had been totally obliterated the year prior. The Zaporizhia Raids, refers to a 14 day (or two week) bombing campaign over the Zaporizhia and Dontesk region, which aimed to destroy all of the Russian infrastructure before a ground push. Each day, a fleet of approximately fifty B-1 Bombers, twenty B-52 Bombers, ten B-2 Spirit Bombers and occasionally a few of the new B-21 raider would conduct aerial bombardments of the two regions. Many Russian forces were destroyed, allowing allied forces to seize the Zaporizhia region in less than a few weeks, and the Dontesk is about a month. This steady progression however, was not represented for Task Force B, who were having an increasingly hard time getting through Crimea. 
Despite smaller victories in Rozdol'ne, Mahazynka, and Zavit-Lenins'kyi, many offensives that they mounted were pushed back, and with the well performing campaign from Task Force A, many commanders had to be swapped out from Task Force B, resulting in an even more un-organized division. This all culminated in the attempted offensive on Krasnogvardeyskoye, which was poorly planned and executed, and resulted in 187 soldiers loosing their lives, and a retreat. Following this incident, a new commander was put in place for the operation, Marcus S. Evans. A Major General who had been involved in Army special operations for years. He quickly organized the Task Force, and began leading a very slow but effective campaign through the Crimean peninsula.
==== August 30th: The Luhansk Horrors ====
"The Luhanks Horrors" refers to a series of war crimes committed by the Russian Army against Ukrainian prisoners of war and the NATO push into the region. NATO and Ukrainian forces pushed towards the region throughout June and July, and had success throughout August, making it closer and closer to the city itself of Luhansk. Several Ukrainian forces were captured following a defeat in Alchevs'k, where Russian forces repelled the NATO and Ukrainian forces, and managed to take many Ukrainians hostage. the Ukrainian prisoners were forced to give information or were tortured to death. News of these atrocities only further amplified support for NATO and the war effort in the west. 
On September 4th, the city of Alchevs'k was seized, and most of the Ukrainian prisoners were freed from their Russian captures, many of whom were shot and killed, in total violation of international law. 
==== September 27th: Task Force A succeeds and is celebrated ====
Following the liberation of the city of Luhansk, the whole region fell back to Ukrainian control. President Zelensky gave a victory speech, in which he filled the Ukrainian people with hope, and once again referenced a Ukrainian NATO addition after the war. The troops were given a three day celebration, which was almost instantly cancelled, as they were informed they had almost all been assigned to join the fight in Crimea.
==== October 1st: The Simferopol Siege ====
With both task forces combined and now being a central command, making it to southern Crimea, along with air support was an easy task at first. Simferopol was surrounded, however Russian fortification and artillery proved to be too great to move in swiftly. Over the next week, despite constant air power coming in, allied forces struggled to gain entry into the city. On October 10th, the 82nd Airborne successfully made a jump into the city where they seized the entire south west region, giving perfect entry into the rest of the city. As the Russians became more and more desperate, many surrendered, and the whole city fell by the 15th. 
The Russia military stationed in the city were taken prisoners and most civilians were given medical aid for injuries incurred after being effected in the battle, and allied commanders began making the plans for a full scale assault and capture of Sevastopol. Whilst many believed that troops should continue on the ground, many others believed that an amphibious invasion from the south with an invasion on land in the north could be practical. This also stemmed from the US Marines wanting a chance to come in for the final battle, as they had played little role, and the Army and Air Force dominated most of the war. Troops began to gather at the north towards the end of the month as it was decided that there was no need for Marine Corps involvement. 
==== October 31st, 2023: The Death Of Putin ====
On October 31st, 2023, it was announced that Putin has fallen out of his apartment window, the same way that numerous Russian politicians met their demise. Whilst it was known he was assassinated, not many knew who did it, and still don't, with the common historical consensus being that the CIA funded, aided, and/or backed Russians who were against his regime. Following his death, hundreds of thousands around the world gathered and celebrated the news, with President Biden remarking that, "This is a moment of justice, for all of the misery and terror that one man caused. 
His death created a massive power vacuum, and he was replaced by Mikhail Mishustin. The country fell into a state of complete collapse, and this historical event would later be known as, "The Halloween Disaster". Mishustin was now having to inherit all the Russian issues, and was first trying to fix a destroyed economic and politcal system. NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, made a request for a private meeting to discuss peace terms.
==== November 2nd, 2023 : Peace Talks ====
On November 2nd, NATO held disucssions with Ukraine and Russia. Mikhail Mishustin was determined to fix the current state of the Russian government and intended to do it sooner rather than later. The terms of which the two sides agreed on would be the following:
# Russia must pull out from all regions of Ukraine.
# Russia must not invade another sovereign country of any kind. 
# Russia must have a highest office of Prime Minister, and free and fair elections every four years.
# Russia must allow Ukraine to join NATO.
# NATO must lift all sanctions on Russia within three years.
Despite how controversial the fourth statement was, it was viewed as a compromise for option 5. Turkey held contention, believing that Ukraine joining NATO would be unneeded, and a risk to other countries in the organization. Whilst other countries didn't think Russia deserved their sanctions to be lifted. These disagreements would go on for another 8 days until it was settled on, and on November 11th, 2023, all Russian forces pulled out of Ukraine, and peace was declared.
==== Post War: A new geopolitical landscape ====
In Europe, the addition of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland made Western Powers and NATO stronger then ever before, whilst Russia suffered, trying to put the scraps they had left to build themselves back up. In the United States, President Biden was considered to have handled to situation very well, and his approval rating went from an average of 40 to a 50.
Category:Samuelfelt