Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army

Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army emblem

Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army flag

*"За наших украинских братьев!"*

- For our Ukrainian Brethren!

Although a majority of the Russian population supported Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, scattered pockets of resistance still remained. One of them, Chechen-born Russian ultranationalist Aslan Zakhaev, believed that Vladimir Putin had disgraced his predecessors and became an embarrassment to the Russian people due to his bid to add Ukraine to his empire as a proxy state by overthrowing the Ukrainian government. His loyalists, which form the bulk of the militia group, believe that Putin's invasion of Ukraine is evidence that he has become an unstable madman similar to Adolf Hitler and that his goal to take over Ukraine is the sole reason Russia is now in economic shambles. In early April of 2022, Zakhaev founded the **Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army** (Russian: **Украинская Временная Армия**; literal English translation: **Ukrainian Provisionist Army**). It was one of two major Russian collaborationist groups fighting against Russia in support of Ukraine, the other being Ukraine's Executioners.

The RUCA was found to be responsible for the 2023 Red Lion Conspiracy, a coup against the Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, their efforts wound up escalating the conflict into World War III.

## History

### Founding and initial actions

Putin invaded Ukraine in order to force it to recognize Crimea as Russian territory and to recognize the independence of the separatist-run east, in addition to additional demands that Ukraine not join NATO and the European Union (for further information, see the article *Why Has Russia Invaded Ukraine?*). To the ultranationalist Aslan Zakhaev, this goal was seen as a disgrace and an embarrassment to the Russian people, whom Zakhaev did not wish to be seen as "power hungry savages."

To that end, Zakhaev created the *Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army* (RUCA), a syndicate of anti-Putin rebels and pro-Ukraine sympathizers, with two goals in mind: provide aid to the Ukrainians and, more controversially, overthrow Putin and his entire government and replace it with a pro-West government.

In early spring of 2022, Zakhaev launched a scathing condemnation of Putin and his cabinet on live television, calling both Putin and his cabinet "traitors" to the Russian people and demanded that Putin withdraw troops from Ukraine effective immediately, threatening violence if his demands were not met.

### Red Lion Conspiracy

When it became clear that Putin would not concede to the RUCA's demands and withdraw troops from Ukraine, Zakhaev and his top lieutenants jointly conceived of a violent coup designed to oust Putin from power and forcibly end the war in Ukraine, codenamed *Red Lion*. Rather coincidentally, a nano-robotic weapon built by Russia, code-named Chimera, was stolen by gangsters led by a rogue ex-Turkish intelligence officer code-named Bellerophon. Surprised, but pleased with this development, Zakhaev recruited Bellerophon into the RUCA, having expressed interest in using the weapon against Putin and his government. Bellerophon proposed a diversionary strike against Russia to turn its attention away from Ukraine: a false flag operation implicating another country in an assassination plot against the Russian President involving the cyber-weapon. Bellerophon proposed the nations of either China or North Korea as potential targets for this false flag operation.

Zakhaev approved of the plan itself, but thought it unrealistic to provoke a war with China, as he did not see any conceivable way for the weapon to cause China to turn against Russia. As an alternative, Bellerophon proposed North Korea, but even this was rejected by Zakhaev, believing that North Korea would retaliate with nuclear weapons and that he was unwilling to risk getting Russia nuked into a nuclear wasteland just to end a war with another country.

Bellerophon's next proposal was the United States, which appalled Zakhaev; he had read about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II years earlier, and believed that implicating the US would lead to further bloodshed, albeit between Russians and Americans, in addition to Ukrainians. Bellerophon maintained that bringing the US into the war would instead force Putin to pull troops out of Ukraine faster, since nobody wanted to fight the United States, given the USA's manpower and military might.