Ukraine (Anglosphere)

The **Third Republic of Ukraine** is a nation in Eastern Europe, born from the Ukrainian War of Liberation between 2033 and 2034. Spanning over 900,000 square kilometers, it is the second largest nation in Europe after the European Federation itself. The nation borders the European Federation to its west, Alania to its southeast and the Russian Republic to its east. The nation is home to around 52 million people, largely due to the influx of immigrants from other nations in Europe and from their annexed territories.

Born from the resistance movement by the former First Lady Olena Zelenska, Ukrainians rose up against the collaborationist government that was pro-Putin shortly after the death of Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian Rebellion was led by the Organization of Ukrainian Liberation, or OUL, and the 18-month long war against the collapsed Russian Federation is officially coined as "Third Patriotic War of the Ukrainian People" (Третій Велика Вітчизняна війна українського народу), although most historians use the term "Ukrainian War of Liberation" (Українська визвольна війна) to describe the conflict. With the Mariupol Accords, Ukraine took large swaths of land from Russia and Belarus, as well as their entry into the European Union. They have stated their intention to not join the EF to preserve their independence.

## History

As Soviet General Pavel Batov once said (and the quote for Omsk in The New Order): *"Hatred of the invading enemy is a most humane feeling. But it is born with such a pain of heart and torment of the soul that God forbid anyone to experience it a second time."* And just like how Batov was the enemy of Omsk and the Black League, this quote summarizes Ukraine's entire national identity for most of the course of the Second Republic.

For centuries dating back to the Napoleonic Wars, Ukraine had always been a part of Russia, at least for the majority of their history over the last 200 or so years. While under Russian control, the Ukrainian people often suffered from atrocities committed by the Russians by either accident or intention, the most notorious of which being the Holodomor during the 1930s. Towards the end of the 20th Century however, the USSR collapsed, and for the first time since World War I, Ukraine is an independent country.

However, an independent Ukraine did not mean the end of Russian presence in the region, for when the Euromaidan broke out in 2014, Russia practically took over the majority Russian Crimea, while beginning their support of separatists in the Donbas region. Despite numerous attempts for peace, Ukraine finds itself stuck in a limbo between not being invaded by Russia and trying to join the American side through NATO and the EU. That limbo would eventually come to an end in 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and in spite of fierce Ukrainian resistance, supported by the Western Powers, Russia eventually broke through in early 2023 after the New Depression struck the globe, leaving NATO to bleed dry from their finances. When Kyiv fell on the 9th of April, the-then Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stood still at the Presidental Palace, awaiting his inevitable fate. As Russian troops stormed the Palace, he was greeted with bullets to his chest, ending his life and the war as a whole.

The fall of Ukraine on April 9th was deemed by many to be a complete embarrassment from the Western Powers, and many Europeans felt outraged by the wasted money on supporting Ukraine instead of preserving the fragile economy. Many scholars today see this schism as the first flashpoint for the eventual Euro-American Split. Post war, Ukraine fell into a state of occupation as Russia annexed the rest of Novorossiya and most of the Kyiv region, while a pro-Russian dictatorship was set up in the western parts of Ukraine. The complete defeat of the nation by Russia again sparked a flame of hatred in the mind of Olena Kiyashko, who was Zelenskyy's widow after his execution. She later established the Organization of Ukrainian Liberation, an ultranationalist militia seeking to avenge the loss of their homeland from Russia. The OUL was estimated to have around 500,000 members by 2033, carrying out assassinations across occupied Ukraine and sabotages.

Then, on April 12th, 2033, the news broke that Vladimir Putin has died at the age of 81. Almost immediately, the OUL rose up against the Russian Collaborationist Government in Ukraine, while the Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu seized the Azov-Caucasus area as his base during the new civil war. All across Ukraine, rebellions rose up against the Russian occupiers, and with the help of the European Union, they began to push out from Western Ukraine, and started to liberate towns across the Ukrainian fields. By July, Mykolaiv became the first major city to be liberated, with Kyiv liberated on August 5th. With the intervention by the Europeans, Odesa was captured by Romania on August 10th, with them handing it back to Ukraine later that month.

The rest of 2033 saw the Ukrainians slowly pushing back Shoigu's rebellion territory, as he loses more and more ground along the Dnieper River. Dnipro was liberated on September 10th, with Zelenskyy's hometown Kryvyi Rih also recaptured later that week on September 14th. The slugfest would end in December, when Kiyashko ordered all troops to focus on liberating the Donbas region and prepare for an invasion into the Russian heartland. Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv was liberated on Christmas Day 2033, sparking Christmas celebrations all across the ruined city. Ukraine would begin their offensive into Russia two days later, taking the border city of Belgorod on December 31st to the cheers of many Russians.

With the Europeans at the gates of Moscow and Murmansk, the Russians have been bled dry from the civil war, and Ukraine made a total Southern Offensive in February, in hopes to liberate Donetsk and Sevastopol. The offensive went very well, and eventually, Kiyashko decided that it was time to declare a new Ukrainian Republic. On March 9th, 2034, as Ukrainian tanks rolled into Mariupol, Kiyashko stepped out of the armored vehicle in front Maternity Hospital No. 3 - the same hospital that was bombed by the Russians 12 years to the date of the Liberation of Mariupol, she declared the formation of the Third Republic of Ukraine, reborn and renewed as a new power. Kiyashko declared it to be the Third Republic, recognizing the "First Republic" as the failed Ukrainian Peoples' Republic during World War I, and the "Second Republic" as the Post-Soviet Ukraine from 1991 to 2023. She also declared the hospital to be rededicated as a museum to the 2022 Invasion. Crimea would also be liberated later that month.

Shoigu's forces would collapse in early July, after the Europeans took the city of Volgograd with the Ukrainians. By this stage, all sides agreed to start peace talks to determine the fate of Russia, and before the Mariupol Accords were signed on the 28th of August, Ukraine launched one last offensive in Eastern Azov, capturing both Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar. With the accords signed, Ukraine annexed huge swathes of Russian and Byelorussian territory, including cities like Rostov, Belgorod and Kursk. All the annexations, combined with Russia being split into 3 parts, meant that Kiyashko's OUL has not only liberated all of Ukraine, but has made the nation even larger than the new Russian Republic.