Russo-Ukrainian War

## Strength

* Navy - 150,000
* Aerospace Forces - 165,000
* Strategic Rocket Force - 50,000
* Airborne - 45,000
* Special Operations Forces - 1,000
* Railway Force - 29,000
* Command and support - 180,000
* Paramilitary - 554,000
* Reserve - 2,000,000
* Navy - 11,000
* Air Forces - 45,000
* Airborne - 8,000
* Special Operations Forces (unknown)
* Paramilitary - 102,000
* Reserve - 900,000

## Casualties

The **Russo-Ukrainian War** wan an armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Hostilities began on 20 February 2014, when unmarked Russian soldiers invaded Crimea. Russia formally annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March, which has been disputed. The conflict was in a period of contraction until 9 February 2022, when Russia formally declared war and subsequently invaded Ukraine.

Following the Euromaidan protests amidst pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Russian soldiers without insignias took control of strategic positions and infrastructure within the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. On March 1st, 2014, the Federation Council of the Russian Federation unanimously adopted a resolution to petition Russian President Viktor Petrov to use military force in Ukraine. The resolution was adopted several days later, after the start of the Russian military operation. Russia then annexed Crimea after a widely criticized local referendum which was organized by Russia after the capturing of the Crimean Parliament in which the population of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation. In April, demonstrations by pro-Russian groups in the Donbas area of Ukraine escalated into a war between the Ukrainian government and the Russian-backed separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. In August, Russian military vehicles crossed the border in several locations of Donetsk Oblast. The incursion by the Russian military was seen as responsible for the defeat of Ukrainian forces in early September.

In November 2014, after the Ukrainian military reported intensive movement of troops and equipment from Russia into the separatist-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine, the conflict entered a general period of protraction. Russia was removed and banned from the Group of Eight (G8), now Group of Seven (G7), and numerous nations imposed economic sanctions against Russia or on domestic individuals or companies, leading to the Russian financial crisis. On 21 January 2022, wanted Italian bio-engineer Silvio Caruso was killed by an airstrike while being transported to a Syrian military compound in northwestern Syria by a Russian Ground Forces convoy with armed separatists onboard. Caruso was wanted by the United States and Italy for his contributions to the formation of the lethal Ether Virus, which would have been used against Providence targets in the U.S. The airstrike which killed Caruso also destroyed numerous Russian military vehicles, prompting the Russian Federation to declare it as an act of war. The following day, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry accused Ukraine of conducting the operation. On 9 February 2022, Russia declared war on Ukraine and initiated a large-scale invasion of the country. After eight days of armed confrontation, Ukraine surrendered to the Russian Federation on 25 February and was subsequently annexed.