Russo-Ukrainian War

From left to right: Russian Airborne Troops parachuting into Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, 2023; Ukrainian resistance fighters battle with Russian forces to capture a Russian Army-occupied outpost, 2022; a Russian ICBM is launched towards Donbas, 2023; Task Force Dire Wolf soldiers hunt for Russian Army personnel and any collaborators in the forests of Ukraine, 2023; a Task Force Dire Wolf squad leader orders his men to raid a suspected collaborator hideout, 2023; Ukrainian resistance fighters lay siege to a Russian-occupied outpost in a Ukrainian village, 2022; a Russian T-72 tank provides support for Russian soldiers fighting to retake an outpost captured by the resistance, 2022; a Task Force Dire Wolf squad leader orders his men to hold their fire upon finding civilians hiding in the forest, 2022; Russian VDV personnel hunt for Ukrainian resistance supporters in eastern Ukraine, 2024; Russian VDV personnel forming a perimeter around a Ukrainian village, 2025; a Task Force Dire Wolf soldier hunts for Russian Army collaborators and stranded personnel in Western Ukraine, 2023

## General information

### Outcome

Conflict ongoing:* Unmarked Russian troops take over Crimea amidst pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution.
* Russian intervention in the war in Donbas
* International sanctions and condemnation against Russia, partially contributing to the Russian financial crisis (2014–2016)
* Russia removed from G7
* Signing of the Minsk Protocol, with both sides later blaming each other for it not yet being implemented
* Russian Army enters Ukraine from Russia, Crimea, and Belarus
* Russian air and missile strikes target military bases, airports and major cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odessa
* Russian forces capture the city of Kherson
* JTF Deathstalker operatives regroup and coordinate new efforts against the Russian occupation
* Ukrainian military isolated and scattered
* Ukrainian resistance forces continue stubborn opposition despite heavy losses

## Major Events

### Battles

Operation Black FuryOperation Black Lightning

Kyiv Campaign:

* Operation Nest Wrecker

Donbass Campaign

Sevastapol Campaign

Black Sea Campaign

Operation Yellow Boulder

## Combatants

### Allied Combatants

UkraineSupported by:

* NATO
* United States of America
* United Kingdom
* EU
* Australia
* Nochnyye
* Task Force Dire Wolf
* JTF Deathstalker
* Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army

### Opposition Combatants

Russia:* CHVK Vagner

CSTO:

* Armenia
* Belarus
* Kazakhstan
* Kyrgyzstan
* Tajikistan

## Commanders and Leaders

### Allied Forces

Ukraine:* Volodymyr Zelensky (2019-Present)
* Petro Poroshenko (2014–2019)
* Oleksandr Turchynov (February-June, 2014)
* Roman Kozachenko (deceased)
* Pylyp Yarosh
* Pylyp Ruban (deceased)
* Alla Hlushko
* Polina Demydenko

United States:

* President of the United States
* Vice President of the United States
* General Charles Shepherd

President of France

Prime Minister of France

Prime Minster of Australia

United Kingdom:

* Queen of the United Kingdom
* Prime Minister Boris Johnson

### Opposition Forces

Russian Federation:* President Vladimir Putin
* Mikhail Mishustin
* General Valery Gerasimov
* General Sergey Shoygu
* General Oleg Salyukov
* Lieutenant General Sergei Kisel
* Major General Vladimir Zavadsky
* Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov
* Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev
* Lieutenant General Alexander Kolpachenko

Ukrainian People's Provisional Army:

* Myron Savchuk (deceased)
* Taras Oleksiyenko (deceased)
* Stefan Fesenko (Defected)
* Stepan Hrytsyuk (deceased)

## Strength

### Allied Strength

Ukraine and Allies:Ukrainian Armed Forces:

* Ground Forces
* Air Assault Forces
* Air Force
* Navy
* Chief Directorate of Intelligence
* Special Operations Forces
* Territorial defence battalions

Ukrainian resistance:

* Ukrainian Provisional Militia
* Task Force Dire Wolf soldiers
* Ukraine's Executioners militants

Ukraine's Allies:

* Joint Task Force Stalker operatives
* Russo-Ukrainian Cooperative Army soldiers

### Enemy Strength

Russia & Allies:Russian Army:

* 41st Combined Arms Army
* 35th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
* 90th Guards Tank Division
* 138th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
* 1st Guards Tank Army
* 2nd Guards Tank Army
* 2nd Army Corps
* 58th Combined Arms Army
* 8th Guards Combined Arms Army
* 20th Guards Combined Arms Army
* Little Green Men

Russian Navy:

* Black Sea Fleet
* Northern Fleet
* 61st Naval Infantry Brigade

Russian Airborne Forces

Russian Air Force

Ukrainian People's Provisional Army

Wagner Group PMCs

## Casualties and losses

### Total deaths

Unknown (Projected to be extremely high)

The **Russo-Ukrainian War** is the name given to an ongoing and protracted conflict that started in February 2014, primarily involving Russia and pro-Russian forces on one hand, and Ukraine on the other. The war has centered on the status of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, which are largely internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.

## Background

See also: Historical background of the Russo-Ukrainian War

*TBA*

## Timeline of events

### 2014 annexation of Crimea

*Main article*: Russian Annexation of Crimea

### 2018 Kerch Strait Incident

*Main article:* 2018 Kerch Strait Incident

### 2021-2022 Russian Military build-up

Main article: 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis

In March and April 2021, Russia started to mass thousands of military personnel and equipment near its border with Ukraine and in its annexed Crimean peninsula, representing the highest force mobilization since the country's annexation of Crimea in 2014, triggering an international crisis and generated concerns over a potential invasion. Satellite imagery showed movements of armor, missiles, and heavy weaponry, which were partially withdrawn in June. The crisis was renewed in October and November 2021, when over 100,000 Russian troops were again massed surrounding Ukraine on three sides by December (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/world/europe/russia-ukraine-invasion.html).

### Operation Black Fury

In early 2022, a separatist group calling itself Red Bison published a series of fake news articles and a documentary alleging that there was a conspiracy by Ukrainian separatists to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a mass disinformation campaign known as Operation Black Fury, millions of Russians were deceived into believing Ukrainian terrorists were plotting to assassinate Vladimir Putin.

### Operation Black Lightning

*Main article*: 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

In what many deemed the largest conventional military attack in Europe since the Second World War (US orders 7,000 more troops to Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine), Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, escalating the war that began in 2014. The invasion, codenamed Black Lightning, was rationalized by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an attempt to "denazify" and "protect the people" in the predominantly Russian-speaking region of Donbas, who Putin described as victims of humiliation by the Ukrainian government. Within minutes of Putin's announcement, explosions were reported in Kyiv, Odessa and the Donbas. Immediately after the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law across the country.

### The Dire Wolves enter the fight

With the invasion over and two-thirds of Ukraine falling under Russian occupation, resistance movements began to spring up across the occupation zone. In late 2022, remnants of the decimated and scattered Ukrainian military formed Task Force Dire Wolf, comprising of the remnants of the Ukrainian Ground Forces and the Ukrainian Special Forces. Immediately after its formation, Task Force Dire Wolf launched Operation X-Ray, which had three main goals: evacuate any Ukrainian villages and towns under siege from the Russians, conduct sabotage operations against the Russian occupation, and, more importantly, assassinate key Russian military officers, as well as any Ukrainian collaborators in the occupation zone.

### Kyiv Campaign

Russia's battle to capture Kyiv included a main effort striking south from Belarus along the west bank of the Dnipro River, with the apparent attempt to encircle Kyiv from the west, supported by two separate axes of attack from Russia along the east bank of the Dnipro: the western at Chernihiv and the eastern at Sumy. The eastern axes of attack apparently intend to encircle Kyiv from the northeast and east. Russian forces captured the ghost towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat, despite fierce resistance from the Ukrainians. Following their breakthrough in Chernobyl, the Russian advance was held at the Battle of Ivankiv, a northern suburb of Kyiv. During the Battle of Antonov Airport, Russian Airborne Troops attempted to seize two airfields around Kyiv, but ultimately failed despite support from Spetsnaz.

### The West Fights Back

Due to the deterioration of the Ukrainian military, various Western nations began to provide aid to Ukraine. These included the nations of the United States of America (despite its own financial and civil unrest caused by the COVID-19 pandemic), the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Baltic countries, Poland, Australia, Canada, and Turkey, and organizations like NATO and the European Union. Under President Joe Biden, the United States sent FGM-148 Javelins and other anti-armour weapons, small arms, various calibres of ammunition, and other equipment.

In the Spring of 2022, the Central Intelligence Agency, NSA, and various US special operations groups formed Joint Task Force Deathstalker, a top-secret joint task force of American special operations soldiers, NSA personnel, and field agents from the Central Intelligence Special Activities Division.

### US collusion with Russia

In Mid-July of 2024, it was found that there was evidence of collusion between certain American politicians and the Russians. Troy Bolton, CEO of the PMC Black Shark Security, sought to sell militarized drones from Apex Corporation to Russia in order to give the Russian military an edge in the war. However, this was later found to be a ruse: the real goal was to use Russia as target practice in preparation for a violent coup against the United States government. with the intention of "purifying" the country from perceived insider threats. To that end, Martin and Bolton took over the archipelago of Aurora and amassed a massive military armament of both armed drones and trained soldiers, hoping to use them in a violent coup against the current President and his administration, in a bid to "obliterate the traitors that had infiltrated the homeland." In mid-July, pro-Ukraine Russian hackers leaked a memo detailing a conspiracy known as Operation Wonderland, a plot by corrupt American politicians to covertly "aid" the Russian invasion of Ukraine, attempting to use Ukraine as "target practice" for their coup against America.

When word of Wonderland reached the United States government, it responded by authorizing Operation Nest Wrecker, a disastrous attempt at stealthily infiltrating the archipelago to investigate what was going on. One of the participants in Operation Nest Wrecker was Ralph Rager, who learned from a US Army general named Grover Shepherd that Russia had been involved with the takeover on Aurora and that the archipelago's military occupation had something to do with the Russian war in Ukraine. After launching a series of sabotage raids against the Russians deployed to the island, it was discovered that CEO Troy Bolton, infuriated by the constant interference in his conspiracy by the surviving US soldiers and Ralph Rager's ragtag gang of resistance fighters, plotted to kill everyone on the island by deploying his army of drones to launch chemical weapon strikes against every resistance fighter on the island.

A violent and lengthy firefight ensued, during which Bolton was personally executed by Ralph following a fierce gun battle and fistfight. With Bolton and Martin dead and their foreign collaborators all dead or arrested, the joint-conspiracy between the corrupt Americans and Russia to overthrow the US government ended with them.

Though the collusion scandal within the US government was prevented, the war in Ukraine raged on.

### A new ally enters the war

In late 2022, a new ally entered the war after Russian forces launched an unsanctioned invasion of the Kuril Islands, intending to annex it as part of the Russian Federation, Subsequently, Japan and the United States simultaneously declaring war on Russia and escalating the conflict into World War III.