Russo-Ukrainian War

The **Russo-Ukrainian War** was a war between Russia and Ukraine, with Belarus joining later on the Russian side.

## Events

### Overview

The Russo-Ukrainian War began on February 20th, 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. Soon after, in April 2014, separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine revolted and declared the **Donetsk People’s Republic** and **Luhansk People’s Republic**, starting the **War in Donbas**. The war remained contained in that region, mostly in trench warfare, until 2022.

The war escalated on February 24, 2022, when Russia publicly and officially invaded Ukraine. The initial stage of the invasion was a three-pronged attach from the north, east, and south, The northern front was mostly in and around Kyiv, focused on capturing the city, but the Russians withdrew at the start of April 2022 to focus on the east. The eastern front was set in the Donbas region and succeeded the **War in Donbas**. The southern front constituted the invasion of southern Ukraine through Crimea. The Russians steadily gained ground in these 2 fronts all throughout the first 3 months after the shock of the invasion wore off.

At this point the “Alternative Future” series starts on June 20th, 2022. At this time, Russia is advancing and continues to advance, capturing the entirety of the Donbas region and depleting Ukrainian morale. In addition, they restart the northern front, which goes slow but then advances quicker. Russia begins to attack Ukrainian convoys delivering weapons to the frontlines. However, some of these weapons reach Ukrainian frontlines, and Ukraine accidentally fires some missiles into Russia. This causes Putin to escalate the war, sending the entire Russian military into Ukraine.

Russian reinforcements allowed them to overpower Ukraine and make a landing in Odessa, They then encircled Ukrainian troops on the east side of the Dnieper River, who surrender. Belarus soon joined on the side of Russia. Belarusian troops encircled Ukrainian troops in the north, very close to Kyiv, and the troops were also forced to surrender. Russian and Belarusian troops from the southern and northern fronts pushed into the center of Ukraine and basically encircled the entire Ukrainian Army. However, Ukrainian troops free the area around Kyiv and broke out of the encirclement. They then push the Russians and Belarusians far back in the north, a little in the south, but lose territory in the east. However, the Russians and Belarusian in the south push north and create a new encirclement around the Ukrainian Army. Ukrainian troops try to break out of the encirclement, but do not succeed and have to either surrender or die. Russian and Belarusian troops cross over Belarus’s southern border and invade western Ukraine. Lviv is encircled, Ukraine falls.

### Southern Front

The **Southern Front** was launched on February 20, 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. It escalated on February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded the rest of Ukraine. They swiftly captured large parts of Ukraine just to the north of Crimea. Russia landed in Odessa and started to move up to the north. They then made an encirclement around Ukrainian troops fighting in the south and captured them. The Russians then made an encirclement together with the northern invasion and trap a large number of Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainians broke out of the encirclement and pushed the Russians south a bit. However, the Russians counterattacked from the south and made another encirclement. This time, the Ukrainians were not able to break out and southern Ukraine is captured, which ended the front with a Russian victory.

### Eastern Front

The **Eastern Front** was launched on April 7, 2014, when the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic declared independence and started fighting against Ukraine. The front escalated when Russia invaded. Soon, Russia captured the entirety of the Donbas region, depleting Ukrainian morale. Russia continued to advance slowly until the Ukrainian troops retreated to better protect Kiev and break out of a large encirclement. At this point, Russian troops advanced quickly up to the Dnieper and captured eastern Ukraine, ending the front in a Russian victory.

### Northern Front

The **Northern Front** was launched on February 24, 2022, with the goal of capturing Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Fighting quickly moved to in and around the city. However, on April 8, 2022, Russian forces withdrew to support forces in the east and south. After the Russians started advancing quickly in the east and south, troops are rerouted to the north. The Russians broke through Ukrainian lines with reinforcements, and started to move very quickly into the country. Seeing Russian progress, Belarus joined the war as well. The Belarusians pushed towards Kiev, and encircled a large amounts of troops to the north of Kiev. They then spearheaded down and, together with a spearhead from the south, encircled a large part of the Ukrainian Army. Ukraine pushed up around Kiev and broke out of the encirclement. Russia and Belarus were pushed back a lot by Ukraine. However, Russia and Belarus spearheaded down from a bit farther west on Belarus’s border and met up with another spearhead from the south. Eventually, Kiev and everyone in the encirclement were captured, and the front ended with a Russian-Belarusian victory.

### Western Front

The **Western Front** was launched soon after the capture of Kiev by the Russians and Belarusians. Russian and Belarusian troops started to invade from Belarus’s southern border en masse, quickly forcing the Ukrainians into an encirclement around Lviv. Lviv surrendered sometime in 2023, and the fall of Ukraine was completed.

## Result

Russia annexed all land to the east of the Dnieper River. Belarus annexed a small bit of land in northern Ukraine. A new, pro-Russian government was established in Ukraine.