World War III (often abbreviated to World War 3, WWIII or WW3), also known as the Third World War, the "Final War“, the "War to End all Peace", or the "Impossible War", was known as one of the deadliest events of Earth's history due to human fault, that lasted from 2025 to 2032 that ended Sino-Russo Expansionism, Pax Americana, global islamic terrorism and authoritarian regimes in Russia and Belarus, and saw the casualties soar to the millions. Over 100 nations joined two rivaling alliances and threw what industrial, military and science technology capabilities into the fight in order to do what they could to contribute to their allies. In a state of total war, more than almost 2 billion people from over 100 nations were mobilized, making World War III the largest war in human history, surpassing its predecessor, World War II. The war was marked as "The Attempted Annihilation" and "The Fall of the Giants" as the major nuclear powers were almost ready to push nuclear buttons and start all out hell and almost cause much of the world to be inhospitable and uninhabitable in major regions. The war would be also marked for how army tactics would be used throughout the conflict, how artificial intelligence and drones began being used more often in the battlefields, usage of ballistic missiles being used on the front and against civilian targets, chemical weapon deployments, attempted use of prisoners of war. World War III was the deadliest event in the history of mankind, marked by 600 million people died and 1 billion people affected, including the victims of various war crimes as conscripted soldiers and many Tibetans, Uyghurs, Ukrainians, Kashmirians, Jews, Arabs, Kurds, Darfurians, Tigray, Baluch and civilians being caught in the fray and slaughtered brutally. This conflict was seen as a result of Second Cold War (2014-2025), Sino-Russian Expansionism, American Hegemony, Pax Americana, lockdowns and economical collapses caused by COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023), the Saudi-Iranian Proxy War, Karabakh war, the Turkish AKP Regime, The Venezuela-Guyana crisis, The Korea crisis, The Belarus crisis, European migration crisis (2015-2025), instability in the US Government, multiple civil wars, the end of the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022-2025), the death of Alexei Navalny and the subsequent memorial actions on February 16-18, 2024, protests in Russia in 2024 (after the re-election of Vladimir Putin for the 5th time), Afghanistan wars, Israel-Hamas War (2023-2025), South China Sea Dispute, Indian-Pakistani rivalry, Second Libyan Civil War, Syrian Civil War (2011-2025), Myanmar Civil War, Sudan Civil War, armed conflict in Ecuador (2024) and political dissent that while many denied, it was present throughout the conflict and before the conflict. Millions more died in the years after the war, due to radiation, famine, disease, suicides, follow-up conflicts or the long term effects of nuclear and chemical warfare.
Map of WW3 with the combatants. Blue is NATO and their allies, Red is the Shanghai-Moscow Pact, Dark Purple are nations that fought on both sides, light purple are nations that collaborated, and black are collapsed nations
The two factions were known to have some of their greatest weapons at their disposal and the major ones were not hesitant in using these warheads in order to gain supremacy over the other, often resulting in results that managed to run downpours of presumable diseases and the risks of global warming to a higher stance. With the extensive use of many weapons that the United Nations and the Geneva Convention clearly outlined illegal, chemical weapons like sarin or mustard gas, cluster munitions and even thermobaric warheads were used by both sides but this sparked huge paranoia among the home fronts, fearing the outcomes if a rouge insurgent state managed to get their hands on a weapon like a nuclear device, which could result in an escalation of the conflict and soon make much of humanity cease to exist.
Background[]
Cold War[]
Mutually Assured Destruction was considered an endgame as the Cold War progressed and as nuclear technology also improved.
After the end of World War Two, the surrender of Germany and Japan, the USA and USSR suffered ideological tensions as much of Europe was divided among the two ideologies, Communism and Capitalism with communist backed countries in East Europe and with capitalist backed countries in West Europe. The USA and USSR would see a Cold War form after relations began to deteriorate quickly and sought to see a 40-year conflict.
The two main superpowers would end up in arms races that would see military might through industrial, scientific and economic capabilities utilized against the enemy. This then would also see the development of nuclear bombs that were capable of destroying a city in one go, while also introducing techniques of spying on a nation through agents and aerial spying. However, it wasn't just the USA and USSR alone in the conflict. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO was formed with the US as the leading member with the main role to contain Soviet aggression and protect Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion. In 1955, the USSR established the Warsaw Pact which was the counterpart to NATO, but only established with pro-USSR countries in Europe, with the exception of Yugoslavia. From here on out, alliances would be established, broken and rebuilt throughout the coarse of the Cold War.
This also saw the end of European Colonialism in Africa, remnants of South America and in Asia, but in the process of decolonization, power gaps were left in the place of when the Europeans ruled. This now meant that the USA and USSR could gain allies overseas to aid them in their cause against the enemy of evil. However, these conflicts would force countries, notably the African countries into economic hardship, poverty, dictatorships and civil wars. This would even see the superpowers involved in conflicts around the globe, directly and indirectly. Examples ranged from the US involvement in Vietnam and supporting the Contras in Nicaragua, US support for Israel during the Arab-Israeli Wars, supporting South Africa fighting in Angola, and USSR support for the Communist Afghan Government, support to communist rebels and many other proxy wars worldwide would then shape the stages for the many world conflicts soon to come.
On the nuclear front of the conflict, both sides had spent a good chunk of their economies building nuclear weapons to gain an advantage over the other. This however created one thing that everyone knew that would happen. In the event of a major war, both sides wouldn't hesitate to use their nuclear weapons against each other and their allies, and throughout the 40 years, the weapons would see upgrades no longer being dropped form airplanes, but launched from missile stations and the development of ICBMs and other nuclear carrying missiles were built. During the Cold War, there was the establishment of MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction, which meant that a nuclear war would mean the end of everything, neither side would want to risk starting one. However, it wasn't just the US and USSR that developed these nuclear bombs. The UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea would all develop nuclear weapons of their own and this greatly increased the chances of a nuclear conflict.
By the end of the Cold War, the USSR was on the brink of collapse and now looked as if the US would win. The 2 sides attempted to try and ease the mountains of tension that were present, this also mean an end to the communist regimes in Europe. On 1989, all leftist movements in Europe came down with a German reunification one year later and the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Despite the conflict being over, much was to occur in the future.
Asia[]
Chinese Civil War and Taiwanese Recognition[]
China and Taiwan's longstanding rivalry would also be another head of international tensions and despite dreams of a reunified China, it never came to fruition.
At first, the Chinese Civil War was fought with Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-Shek against the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, who would become the first leader of China after the war. The fight was due to the legitimacy and reliability of the Chinese Government as the Communists took a huge disliking to the KMT Government.
Tensions began when Chiang Kai-Shek discussed with his associates that the CCP was economically, socially disruptive and it had to be undone for a Nationalist Revolution to continue. On April 12th, Communist members in Shanghai were purged by the KMT being rounded up and executed and led to thousands of arrests made with orders from General Bai Chongxi. The CCP referred to this as the "12 April Incident" or Shanghai Massacre. It began to widen the rift of Wang Jingwei and Chiang who controlled the city of Wuhan. From late 27-28 until 1937, China was in full civil war as the communist insurgency continued as the CCP received support from the USSR. By 1936, the military situation changed drastically due to Japan's invasion of China.
Both the KMT and CCP forces waged a guerilla conflict against the Japanese Empire from 1937 throughout the entirety of World War II. Even when the Second World War was over, fighting still continued as Japan withdrew, both sides began to rapidly reclaim territories occupied by Japan during the war, which included Manchuria. In 1948, the CCP captured much of norther China which included Shenyang and Changchun after suffering huge losses and setbacks. By the early 50s, all of the KMT was lost and retreated to the island of Taiwan, which from there, on October 1st, 1949, Mao Zedong in the capital of Beijing, proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Despite the KMT being defeated, the Republic of China or commonly now known as Taiwan was established after the Nationalist Exodus from Mainland China.
After both Chinas were established, both went down different routes as Taiwan attempted to modernize and appeal for support from the US, while gaining membership at the United Nations after the end of World War II and the recent civil war, while the PRC had to rebuild after the war and decided to industrialize. For a time being, during the Korean War, the People's Republic of China wasn't accepted into the UN for a good time being. By 1971, that had changed as the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 2758 which would see Taiwan removed from the UN and the People's Republic of China as the only China accepted in the UN.
This is known as the One China Policy in which, The One China principle is held with the PRC holding the position claiming that there is only one sovereign state under the name with China and the PRC and the ROC had just that, but it was decided that the PRC would be in the UN and Taiwan was no longer a UN member.
By the 2000s, China now a modernized country has now been hellbent on annexing Taiwan in order to make it as completely, One China. Taiwan has appealed to the US and its neighbors for support in the event of a Chinese invasion. After Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Xi Jinping ordered passive aggressive military exercises around the Taiwanese Strait. Taiwan continues its fight for recognition of the International Community and for full independence. Only 14 countries recognize Taiwan, that being Belize, Eswatini, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu and Vatican City.
Korean Conflict[]
The Koreas became a major point of tension for the world as many had the question of presumable Korean reunification.
The Korean Conflict was an ongoing war with the main cause for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula under one rule. The peninsula is housed by North Korea, an authoritarian communist regime in the north, and South Korea, which is more democratic and free in the south. Both longed for the reunification of the peninsula under their way of ruling. Multiple times has almost caused the peninsula to go up in flames.
At the end of World War Two with the surrender of Japan, the Korean Peninsula was divided in two with the USSR supporting a communist regime and the US supporting a democratic government in the south. North Korea was lead by Kim Il Sung and South Korea was lead by Syngman Rhee. Both governments refused to see the border as permanent and began the dream of the reunification of Korea under either a communist or democratic rule. Hostilities finally reached a boiling point when North Korea, supported by the USSR invaded South Korea on June 25th, 1950, officially beginning the Korean War. The South Korean Army was heavily defeated and pushed back to a final perimeter around the city of Busan. South Korea appealed for support to the UN, and without the USSR boycotting the resolutions, a UN coalition with the US leading the coalition and led by General Douglas MacArthur arrived to assist the South Koreans and managed to push back the North Korean invasion. The coalition kept pushing back the invasion up towards the Chinese border at the Yalu River. China retaliated by assisting North Korea and pushed back the coalition. From 1951-52, the frontlines went back and forth with no side making major victories. By 1953, all fighting had stopped and after many discussions, both North Korea and South Korea remained separated along the 38th Parallel. While many said the conflict was over, it was only on combat operations that the war was over, but it kept going.
North and South Korea developed 2 different routes after the end of the conflict with North Korea developing a totalitarian country closing it from trade with the outside world and had the Kim Regime leading the country with a successor ready to take the place of the previous leader, and would be hellbent on unifying the peninsula and labeled the US and Japan as nations of evil and was supported by the USSR and China. Meanwhile, South Korea received support from the United States, but because of the threats that North Korea made, US troops were stationed in the country to help protect the nation in the event of a Northern invasion. South Korea began to develop more prosperous while North Korea remained as an authoritarian nation sending much of their economy and food to the army. But the threat of the North's invasion always remained.
Despite there being no major skirmishes between the two nations, the 2 countries were still involved in minor conflicts that at didn't ignite full-on fighting. These skirmishes ranged from the Gangneueng Submarine boarding in 1996, a Sokcho submarine incident in 1998, and the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong. The only reason that North Korea was involved was to see what South Korea was doing, and in order to provoke a US response in exploitation for propaganda usage and label the US as an aggressor.
However, North Korea then began working on nuclear weapons in secret to give the south a scare and give it an edge over its neighbor to the south. By late 2006, North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon which in turn violated the UN condemned North Korea. 3 years later, in 2009, North Korea tested their second nuclear weapon which only increased international condemnation, which saw more weapon tests in 2013 and 2016. By 2018, Donald J. Trump and incumbent leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un met in Singapore for a summit based on the subject of denuclearization of North Korea. Overall, despite the Singapore Summit looking good, it never materialized as North Korea would continue with their nuclear weapons testing and continue to threaten South Korea.
Indian-Pakistani Wars[]
Since independence, the longstanding disputes of Kashmir would tarnish the diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan and would persist after World War III
After the British Raj was dissolved in 1947 and India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ceylon, Myanmar and Pakistan gained independence, only one year later, Pakistan and India went to war over disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Despite Indian victories in many of these conflicts, after 1948, more conflicts between the two countries began to flare up with a conflict in 1965, a war supporting Bangladeshi Independence in 1971, Kashmiri Insurgency in 1989 and the Kargil War in 1999.
These string of conflicts also played into the Cold War as they became proxy conflicts with the US and USSR taking sides. The US and UK supported Pakistan and the USSR supported India. Both sides received powerful weapons from their respective sides with India receiving equipment such as the T-55 and Pakistan receiving equipment like the M48 Patton tanks. These countries used their equipment in these short but violent conflicts to gain Kashmir.
China also became part of these conflicts supporting Pakistan as China was slowly getting isolated by pro-Soviet countries as the Cold War developed and supported Pakistan with their own weapons. However, it wasn't just for a neighbor that supported China, as China and India have had territorial disputes as India claimed China holds territory that is rightfully theirs, while China claimed that India was being an aggressor attempting to claim rightful Chinese land.
Right now, if India and Pakistan were to enter another conflict, China would support Pakistan with their technology and effectively try to box in India in order to help Pakistan claim Kashmir.
Caribbean[]
Cuban Missile Crisis[]
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the few times when the superpowers would almost push their buttons into all out nuclear warfare and managed to scar the world on how deadly nuclear weapons could be once they are released.
The US had primarily placed medium-ranged missiles in Italy and Turkey who were NATO allies prior to the crisis in order to threaten the USSR and display strength. The USSR had medium-ranged ICBMs too but could only reach as far as Europe. Luckily, an opportunity had come in the form of another communist revolution. Communists in Cuba led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara led a pro-communist coup against the democratic Cuban Government and the revolution had been successful. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy ordered an invasion of Cuba using Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro, but would become one of the biggest embarrassments in US history.
Castro knew himself that the US was a major threat to the Cuban Communist Party, so he sought support from the USSR and took interests in the middle-ranged ICBMs that couldn't reach towards the US East Coast but if placed further from Soviet territory, could have the potential. One U-2 Spy Plane would then capture a photograph of the USSR ICBMs now placed on Havana's soil and Washington was in disarray. The US and Canada were completely vulnerable to the Soviet nukes and the US needed to act fast. In response, a blockade was announced and it would search any Soviet ships bound for Cuba, and any that refused to cooperate would be sunk.
To make sure that the USSR wouldn't back down, its army was fully mobilized and its nuclear missiles were put to full combat readiness. The US did the same and began drawing up plans to invade Cuba and US Strategic Command chose DEFCON 2, which was to increase military combat readiness to its fullest extent, while DEFCON 1 meant all-out nuclear war. Just before the US was ready to set the invasion date and time of Cuba, at the last minute, the USSR and US came to a final agreement. The USSR would send its nukes away from Cuba if the US did the same by bringing their missiles back from Italy and Turkey. Both sides finally agreed and WW3 was avoided, for now.
Cyprus[]
Cyprus Conflict[]
In order to understand the Cyprus conflict, it is important to start with the wars the Ottoman Empire had against the French, British, Italians and Russians. In 1878, the British Empire occupied the island in the Mediterranean from the Ottoman Empire and having the island annexed in 1914 and was kept as a colony throughout World War One, Greco-Turkish War, Turkish War of Independence, transfer of Turkish and Greek populations and World War Two, the Greeks resided in the south of the colony, while the Turks who lived on the island resided north, near Turkey.
In 1955, Britain had to combat independence fighters in Cyprus which saw British forces stationed in the island combat the EKOA which was an independence movement founded by mostly Greek Cypriots. In 1957, during the conflict, Turk Cypriots joined on the fighting calling for independence, while not collaborating with the EKOA. The conflict ended with the London-Zurich Agreement which would see the British leave Cyprus and have the Republic of Cyprus formed. Britain would still have bases in Cyprus for protection, but the Greek Cypriots failed to unite with Greece and the Turk Cypriots were still unsatisfied and with it left unchecked, the tensions continued to build slowly.
By 1974, it all came to full on fighting with a coup d'état against President Makarios III overthrown and Nikos Sampson took office. This was shortly followed by a Turkish invasion of the island establishing a beachhead and airborne troops on the island quickly seizing the north. Turkey wasn't alone and was supported by Turkish resistance in Cyprus. The conflict was short but violent. It ended with the creation of North Cyprus which is an unrecognized country and internationally recognized by Cyprus. This was a dilemma for the US as Turkey and Greece at the time were members of NATO, and if a conflict like this occurred again, the US feared that the USSR could find a way to exploit this and force either country to defect NATO and join the Warsaw Pact. In the end, a UN buffer zone was established along the border of North Cyprus and South Cyprus. Despite the conflict over, there have been attacks along the buffer zone as Greek Cypriots clashed with Turkish Cypriots along the buffer zone. Cyprus remained divided after the conflict and served as a point for Turkish-Greek tensions.
Wars of Africa: Cold War Mercenaries[]
Amidst the Decolonization of Africa during the Cold War, the newly independent countries began joining the new world, but some began falling into spheres of influence of either the United States or the USSR. Some of these nations would then fall to civil wars, corruption and poverty, which in turn would destabilize a majority of the continent. Oil and diamonds, being valued resources also played an instrumental part in the conflicts that unfolded, being used as tools to get the support of the superpowers and receive weapon shipments, but just kept the conflict going and made it more deadly.
Siegfried Müller, a former Wehrmacht soldier was one of the infamous mercenaries of the many African wars during the Cold War, and in the Congo Crisis, was dubbed "The Laughing Mercenary"
Some of these countries that fell into civil wars had deadly consequences that, while bringing attention of both the global superpowers and their former colonizers, and another power, mercenaries. These paid soldiers were quick to jump on the opportunities for conflicts and weren't hesitant to join. They fought like regular soldiers and the governments paid them to fight for their causes, and these mercenaries began fighting in some of Africa's deadly combat zones.
During the Congo Crisis with the ONUC deployed in the rogue province of Katanga, the UN peacekeepers found themselves attacked by the Katangese rebels during the Siege of Jadotville. In which a close air support jet piloted by a French mercenary supported Katangese rebels charging towards the peacekeepers. Among the crowd, the Katangese were supported by Rhodesian and Belgian mercenaries. The siege ended with the Irish surrendering and taken prisoner.
During the Nigerian Civil War, mercenary pilots supported the Nigerian forces, with their nationalities being from East Germany and Egypt, with the Egyptian pilots being replaced by the East German pilots after they bombed civilian infrastructure. Biafra saw mercenaries from multiple nationalities, ranged from Canada, West Germany, Poland, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sweden, Belgium, and France. Some of these mercenaries acted as pilots for the Biafran army carrying out raids against the Nigerian supply lines. The names of these mercenary pilots were Lynn Garrison from Canada, Taffy Williams from South Africa, Marc Goosens from Belgium, Rolf Steiner from West Germany, Carl Gustaf von Rosen from Sweden, Jan Zumbach from Poland, Jack Malloch from Rhodesia and Roger Faulques from France. The conflict ended in a Nigerian victory and Biafra reintegrated into Nigeria.
In the Angolan Civil War, Cuba deployed an expeditionary force to support the MPLA and other communist forces in Angola and fought against the South African backed UNITA and FNLA. The MPLA also saw support from Soviet mercenaries with their nationalities from Ukraine and Russia, which specialized in MANPAD systems. Support troops and advisors supporting the MPLA and the Angolan Government also reportedly came from East Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Brazil with allegedly aircraft in their expeditionary force. The FNLA received mercenaries with recruitment from an Englishman named John Banks and an American named David Bufkin. These soldiers that were recruited weren't professional soldiers but claimed that they were fantasists that invented war records, just for themselves. The conflict ended with an MPLA victory after Jonas Savimbi was killed and the People's Republic of Angola was formed. During the conflict, the west continued to support Savimbi as territory held by the UNITA contained blood diamonds. They were used to keep the west's support for the UNITA and FNLA going and had South Africa continue distributing weapon systems to the rebels.
West Africa[]
Western Sahara Conflict[]
Before Spain left Western Sahara, it began negotiating a power handover in the summer of 1975 and was meant to cede administrative control of the territory to both Morocco and Mauritania. However, after the signing of the Madrid Accords and on October 31st, 1975, Moroccan troops crossed into the territory with the Moroccan Government organizing what was called the Green March. The Green March consisted of 35,000 citizens of Moroccan nationality and escorted by 20,000 troops in order to establish Moroccan presence in Western Sahara. This then escalated into a guerilla styled war as Polisario fighters began skirmishing with the Moroccan soldiers.
After the departure of the Spanish and on December 11th, Moroccan soldiers arrived in El Aaiun and fighting quickly erupted between Polisario and Morocco. Mauritania, who was also promised territory joined the conflict siding with Morocco. The conflict also brought the attention of France who intervened only when a group of French technicians were taken prisoner during a raid on the Zouerate iron mines. France codenamed their intervention Operation Lamantin in which they deployed fighter jets to Mauritania to assist the Moroccan and Mauritanian forces. This conflict even saw the use of white phosphorus and napalm being deployed as in 1976, Moroccan fighter jets bombed refugee camps in the northern part of Western Sahara with napalm and white phosphorus bombs which killed thousands of civilians.
By August of 1979, Morocco immediately claimed the area of Western Sahara evacuated by Mauritania, which was Tris al-Gharbiya and half of Rio de Oro and Morocco annexed the territory but after that and into the 80s, the conflict hit a stalemate. Morocco managed to retain a large portion of Western Sahara and kept Saharawi troops off of their lands by building the Moroccan Wall with Moroccan soldiers, with roughly the same size as the Sahrawi population deployed to defend the wall and enclosed the southern provinces. The stalemate only left artillery strikes and sniping attacks for the rest of the decade as Morocco received support from Saudi Arabia, France and the United States.
By 1898-1991, tensions flared up again as Polisario launched a massive attack against Moroccan forces in Guelta Zemmour. They withdrew after having 18 tanks and more dozen vehicles burning. This setback then called for Polisario to consider a ceasefire. The last major operation of the war was the 1991 Tifariti Offensive or known as Operation Rattle and ended in a successful maneuver for Western Sahara. On the 6th of September 1991 the conflict ended with the UN promising an independence referendum but the plans had failed and tensions are present with Morocco and Western Sahara.
Australasia[]
East Timor Conflict[]
The East Timor conflict was fought between Indonesia and East Timor and one of the many proxy conflicts of the Cold War as it saw Indonesia supported by the USA and East Timor supported by the USSR and also saw the East Timorese Genocide.
East Timor was originally colonized by Portugal or known as Portuguese Timor. By April of 1974, left wing movements began to revolt against Portuguese rule on Timor and Portugal suffered a coup against Estado Novo who was a right wing authoritarian figure. It then called for Portugal to rapidly withdraw from their colonial possessions, East Timor included. However, unlike Angola or Mozambique, East Timor did not have a war of independence and the Timorese Democratic Union was formed as the first political group to be announced after the Portuguese withdrew. However, the TDU suffered internal discontent in the party and soon found itself in an internal conflict.
Indonesian motivations for the conflict would be that the Portuguese coup was seen as an opportunity by Indonesia to annex East Timor. There were considerations of Indonesian and Western fears that the leader of East Timor, Fretilin would create a communist state right on Indonesia's doorstep and could be used as a base for communist guerilla warfare on Indonesian soil. The Indonesian New Order Party planned the invasion of East Timor and launched a false flag operation in early September in which 200 special forces soldiers launched incursions against five journalists known as Balibo Five, working for Australian media were executed by Indonesian soldiers in the town of Balibo on the 16th of October.
On December 7th, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor in an operation named Operation Lotus (Operasi Seroja) and was the largest military operation carried out by Indonesia. Indonesian seaborne troops laned in the Timorese cities while paratroopers descended into Dili where they engaged in combat against the FALINTIL. It ended with an Indonesian occupation of the island until 1999. During which time, Indonesian soldiers went on a brutal campaign on what they called "pacification campaigns" in which approximately 170,000 died throughout what would be called the East Timorese Genocide. It only came to international attention in 1991 when a video captured protestors at Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili being shot by Indonesian soldiers, killing 270 protestors. The UN intervened demanding Indonesian soldiers leave East Timor. In 1999, Indonesia departed East Timor but a crisis emerged and UN peacekeeping soldiers had to be called to protect the civilians from the violence. After that, and an independence referendum, East Timor was a sovereign independent country but Indonesian influence still remained in East Timor.
Middle East[]
Arab Israeli Wars[]
In 1948, after the departure of the British Empire in the Middle East, the Jews and the Arabs living in the area of what would become Israel and Palestine began claiming the land they had desired during their colonization. It wasn't long before both sides broke out into all out war that would continue into the 21st Century and still goes on today with Israel and Palestine now at each others throats. Part of the problem was that during the Sykes Picot Agreement, when the borders would be drawn up of who would get what after the Ottoman Empire lost control of the Levant, Arabs had lived in the Holy Land and the Brits had wanted an area for the Jews to live, much to the dismay of the Arabs. The ignorance of Britain and France would soon haunt them in the future.
The conflict arose when the land that was formerly British Palestine was regarded by the Jews because of it being their ancestorial homeland. Concurrently, it was regarded by Pan-Arabism as historically, it was land that belonged to the Arab Palestinians. The sectarian conflict with British Mandate Palestine soon escalated into clashes between the Jewish and Arab groups living in the area, and despite the UN drawing up zones for both to live in the Holy Land, it ultimately failed as by 1948, the State of Israel declared independence and full on fighting commenced between Israel and the Arab states. It wasn't just one conflict as it followed with a string of conflicts after the 1948 War of Israeli Independence, with the Suez Crisis in 1956, 6 Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
By 1979, after the Israeli withdrawal form the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt and Israel made peace and Egypt became the first nation to recognize Israel. This also saw the abolition of Israel's military occupation of West Bank and the Gaza Strip in favor of the annexation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, which were respectively, Syrian and Palestinian land.
The conflict took a turn instead of the Arab nations and Israel fighting directly to supporting different factions of militias in other countries. The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict tensions peaked during the Lebanese War of 1982 in which Israel invaded southern Lebanon to crush bases in the area used by the Palestinian Liberation Organization which used much of south Lebanon's border as a base to conduct operations against the Israelis. This is what also caused a further collapse of Lebanon and gave rise for Iranian influence in the country.
The nature of the conflict still continued in both destabilized Lebanon and in an autonomous Palestine after it broke away from Jordan. The First Palestinian Intifada, which was a series of violent protests against the Israeli Government was deemed a failure and with the Oslo Accords led to Jordan recognizing Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process and a ceasefire between Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Despite these peace accords, and more Arab countries recognizing Israel due to tensions with Iran, tensions still remained at some height.
The tensions once again boiled over in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, further collapse of Lebanon, Sinai Crisis and the Iraqi Civil War would see Palestine increase their attacks on Israel, to which Israel would respond with deadly retaliatory attacks, which would see condemnation from many Arab League members and would continue well into the 2020s and soon to reach World War III.
Iranian Revolution and the Saudi-Iranian Proxy War[]
Much before Iran became one of the top adversaries of the Untied States, Iran was much like Saudi Arabia as a Middle East Monarchy with a government supported by the United States and allies with military equipment from the west. But before Iran became a monarchy, in 1953, the US and UK staged a coup and removed the popular leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh and he was replaced by Reza Shah. Iran after that became a monarchy like Saudi Arabia and the Shah began reforming Iran to be a secular western nation.
Despite all the reforms, the Shah harbored corruption and terror silencing all forms of opposition using the Iranian secret police, the SAVAK. Unlike the Saudi Wahhabi Monarchy that managed to win over the people, what the Shah did to his people was cause fear, social injustice, discontent and paranoia. By 1979, the people fought back. The Iranian Revolution was led by Ruhollah Khomeini who was an Islamic clergyman who despised imperialist powers like the US, UK and USSR. After the revolution, the Shah and the SAVAK were gone, the Iranian Monarchy was gone, the Islamic Republic of Iran was formed and this was the beginning of the Saudi-Iranian Cold War. Iran then began attempting to export its revolution to the other Arabian countries in hoping that the ideals would convince the populace to rise up. The reason why is the following. Saudi Arabian Muslims are Sunni and Iranian Muslims are Shia. The major differences between the 2 are: In Sunni Islam, the Imams are viewed as saints and if one is to be a saint, the Imam must have strong faith in the Quran and Sunnah in order to be one, as well as the Sunnis focus on following the example of Prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah. Whereas in Shia Islam, Imams are appointed by Allah and Imams are also the legitimate interpreters of the Quran and the Shias focus on the lineage of Prophet Muhammad's family through a series of Imams.
In 1980, Iran and Saudi Arabia's neighbor, Iraq launched an invasion of Iran for numerous reasons, but one of those reasons was to prevent the revolution ideals reaching Iraq as the leader Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, Iraq was Shia majority and Saddam feared that the Shias would attack him and the Sunni groups in Iraq. For years, the conflict became reminiscent of World War One as both sides used chemical weapons, and engaged in trench warfare. Saudi Arabia feared that if Iran gained the upper hand, Iraq could be used as a major staging ground for the revolutionary ideals to be sent to Saudi Arabia and threaten its neighbors. Saudi Arabia along with the USSR, US and other nations sent aid to Iraq in the form of military and economic support, allowing Iraq to wage its war. By 1988, the conflict was over without a winner. But that was one of the many conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In 2003, the US, UK, Poland and Australia invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam's regime, but in doing so, it left a power gap and soon, Shia and Sunni groups began fighting all over Iraq to gain dominance over their enemy and be the dominant group in Iraq. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran began sending aid to their respective sides as the conflict kept on raging throughout the 2000s and 2010s. By 2011, the Arab World experienced an uproar that would leave a mark on its history which saw dictators deposed, new governments form, civil wars spark and the worsening of the region as a whole, that being the Arab Spring. A multitude of uprisings spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa with Saudi Arabia and Iran getting involved wherever they could. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia sent a police force to support the government while Iran stoked protests. In Tunisia, Saudi Arabia supported a dictator while again, Iran backed protests. However, some countries began breaking further into civil war that required more than just police guards. In Syria, a rebel organization called the Free Syrian Army saw support from Saudi Arabia, the GCC and western nations, while Assad saw support from Iran. In Yemen, Houthi rebels and forces loyal to a Yemeni governor named Saleh launched an uprising against the Hadi-led Government and saw support from Iran. Saudi Arabia in turn, assembled a coalition to combat the Houthi threats. The conflicts have worsened relations of all countries in the Middle East, deteriorating the life expectancy in many countries, causing widespread disease outbreaks, webs of alliances and the countries continuing to fail as Saudi Arabia and Iran keep sending weapons and pulling on their strings.
1990s-Modern Day: Post-Soviet Wars, Congo Wars, Collapse of Yugoslavia etc.[]
1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis: Death of Russian and Belarusian Democracies[]
Once the USSR was dissolved in 1991, the Russian economy was in a declining state, and so were the other post-Soviet Republic's economies, and in 1991, Russia's GDP percentage was -5.0%. Under Boris Yeltsin, his 1992 Economic Reform plans were started with prices skyrocketing as taxes increased with the government spending slashed. Many industries shut down or downscaled their employee levels which saw a staggering increase in unemployment and ultimately, see Russia protract into an economic depression and Yeltsin's program began to lose support. By 1992, Russia's GDP change was by -14.5%. Throughout the rest of 1992, his reform polices would grow stronger with many on the opposing side of Russia worrying about the country's economic future, with Alexander Rutskoy, Yeltsin's vice president criticize Yeltsin's plan, labelling it "Economic Genocide." During the 90s, the US under Bill Clinton would provide an approximate $2.58 Billion USD to help Russia fix it's economy and encouraging investment of American businesses. This would also have the leaders of oil-rich provinces such as Tatarstan and Bashkir call for independence from Russia. Throughout the rest of 1992, Yeltsin would tackle the Supreme Soviet and Russian Congress of People's Deputies in a political war for control. Ruslan Khasbulatov would also come out and support the oppositionists of Yeltsin with counterclaims of him supporting Yeltsin's goals.
Boris Yeltsin would be concerned about the terms of the 1991 constitutional amendment in Russia would be expired by 1992 and while awaiting the implementation of his privatization program would demand the Russian parliament would reinstate his power decree but those in the Supreme Soviet and Russian Congress of People's Deputies would refuse. Tensions remained high for the next year as Yeltsin and the oppositionists battled for control with the president hosting a vote to see whether he would stay in power through four questions. The answers would have questions 1, 2 and 4 answered yes, and number 3 as no. (Да, Да, Нет, Да) and by September and October 1993, tensions were reaching their peak.
Early October saw protests and riots in Moscow would break out between pro-Yeltsin and anti-Yeltsin protesters as the oppositionists barricaded themselves in the Russian White House and violent fights breaking out in the streets. Yeltsin would declare martial law in Russia and order the military to arrest the oppositionists in the Russian White House. Violent street fights would occur in Moscow between pro-Yeltsin and anti-Yeltsin protesters and the military with casualties reaching the thousands by some estimates. The anti-Yeltsin protesters would attempt to storm the Ostankino Television Tower to broadcast messages of Yeltsin's failures but were swiftly quelled, before turning to the Russian White House. While many officers and generals, including Rutskoy, a former general had little sympathy for Yeltsin with the high-rankers having more sympathy for Yeltsin, and as the oppositionists failed in having a form of actual defense along with the blockades, at the last minute, the military would side with Yeltsin. Plans were conceived to have lines of tanks fire at the upper floors of the Russian White House to create confusion and panic with the defenders, but to minimize casualties too, but there were conflicting reports of the tanks firing either blank or live rounds into the building. 10 tanks were deployed with 5 of them parked at the Novy Arbat bridge with the other 5 parked at the Pavlik Morozov playground, behind the building. Spetsnaz forces would storm the perimeters of the barricades with the Russian Army managing to encircle the entirety of the building by October 4th with the tanks punching holes in the Russian White House. At 8:00am, Moscow time, Yeltsin declared to his followers:
"Those, who went against the peaceful city and unleashed bloody slaughter, are criminals. But this is not only a crime of individual bandits and pogrom-makers. Everything that took place and is still taking place in Moscow is a pre-planned armed rebellion. It has been organized by Communist revanchists, Fascist leaders, a part of former deputies, and the representatives of the Soviets.
Under the cover of negotiations they gathered forces, recruited bandit troops of mercenaries, who were accustomed to murders and violence. A petty gang of politicians attempted by armed force to impose their will on the entire country. The means by which they wanted to govern Russia have been shown to the entire world. These are cynical lies and bribery. These are cobblestones, sharpened iron rods, automatic weapons and machine guns.
Those, who are waving red flags, again stained Russia with blood. They hoped for the unexpectedness, for the fact that their impudence and unprecedented cruelty will sow fear and confusion."
By noon, the barricades fell and the army began storming the floors of the White House and floor by floor, began to occupy the building with Rutskoy's radio requests to the Russian Air Force to bomb the Kremlin being unanswered and by late afternoon to evening, the oppositionists were extradited from the building and the street fighting eradicated. Many consider the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis the "Death of Russian Democracy" as they had cited at Yeltsin's power hungry ambitions and his actions against the Supreme Soviet during the economic depression. In the end, the Supreme Soviet was disbanded and replaced it with the Federal Assembly.
Nagorno-Karabakh Disputes[]
The Nagorno-Karabakh territorial conflicts are one of the popular of the post-Soviet wars as the geographical importance of the Caucasus Mountains and the ethnic war that played as a major factor for the 2 countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia and played major interest with Russian and soon Turkish influence in the region.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ethnic tensions between the two independent countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh with the local population showing decline in the vicinity of the territory according to the 1989 Soviet Census and according to writers such as Thomas de Waal, the first reports of violence came before the collapse of the USSR with the very first one going back to 1987 when a Azerbaijani official punished Armenians living in the village of Chardakhly with women, men, children and the elderly abused during the raid, and the reasoning was for a crackdown against a new farm collective-director. He suspected that such "incidents" committed in the Soviet Republics of Azerbaijan had managed to displace many Azerbaijanis living in Armenia and would flee to Baku as stowaways in trucks and trains bound for Azerbaijani cities.
Azeri soldiers rearming in the mountains.
The 1990s would see the first official clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan when Armenians living in Azerbaijan declared independence and formed the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh and would see Armenia and Azerbaijan engage in warfare as Armenia supported secessionists in Karabakh while Azerbaijan attempted to curb and suppress the rebellions. Even before clashes erupted, a referendum was held in the territory that saw much of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh vote to secede from Azerbaijan at a staggering 99.9% and formed the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh. Winter 1992 saw full combat between the two sides erupt and despite attempts by the Organization for Security Cooperation of Europe to mediate tensions, they're unsuccessful and by Spring of 1993, much of the territory was in control of Armenian forces and captured territory outside of the enclave. Near the end of 1994, Armenia controlled vast portions of Nagorno-Karabakh and even 9% of Azerbaijan's holding on the territory, and with a Russian-brokered ceasefire and peace deal by the same year, the war would come to an end with both states returning to new borders as Armenia now cut off the now formed Azerbaijani enclave of Nakchivan.
2008-2020 would see series of border clashes between the two states with the first clashes from 2008 coming after protests of Armenia's election and with many dead, both sides would proclaim victory. The UN General Assembly would then have a resolution that would see Armenian troops depart from the occupied territory. 2010 saw sporadic gunfire clashes on the lines that divided Nagorno and Azerbaijan. This saw the heaviest in Armenian casualties since 2008's violence. From 2010-14, clashes still continued within the region and with the clash of 2014, Azerbaijanis shot down a Nagorno-Karabakh helicopter over Karabakh's Agdam district and the crash becoming the deadliest for Armenian forces since the 1994 ceasefire. 2016 once again saw the two sides go to war in a 5-day war of April on the contact line. Much like the 2008 clashes, both sides claimed victory as Azerbaijan claimed of taking strategic positions while Armenia made counterstatements that they repelled the Azerbaijani offensives, but the contact borders changed with Azerbaijan now holding 8.0km^2 of territory on the contact line. Following the end of the 2016 clash, 2018 would see more reports of border clashes between the two and with civilians that volunteered for Nagorno-Karabakh's forces killed in demining missions, and 2020 would change the way war was for both sides.
The Bayraktar TB2 combat drone made it's first appearance in the battlefield and would mark a new stage in warfare.
The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War is officially considered the 2nd Nagorno-Karabakh War with both sides once again going to war from September to November. This time, Azerbaijan claimed victory in the conflict as the war was a huge mark for the change of warfare as this highlighted the usage of combat drones and proving how capable they are in combat and saw heavy usage of cluster munitions and other weapons, including trench warfare. Azerbaijan enjoyed support from the drones as they were the country's main focus on taking out Armenian/Artsakh positions, some drones would be shot down, Azerbaijani forces would make various gains against both sides, especially with support from their Turkic ally of Turkey which had formed strong political and military relations with Azerbaijan being the main supplier of the drones and providing Syrian mercenaries to fight with Azerbaijani forces. In Azerbaijan's victory, they regain control of the Iranian-Azerbaijani border, 5 cities and multiple towns. From this onwards, the Caucasus has been an area of interest for Russia and Turkey as both sides now engage in a frozen conflict consisting of sporadic violations of ceasefires and gunfights across the contact lines.
Yugoslav Wars[]
On May 4th, 1980, Josip Broz Tito, the famous and popular leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia died due to complications with gangrene. With his death, came discontent, disunity and disaster. In 1991 at the end of the Cold War, Yugoslavia fell into disarray as multiple factions began fighting the JNA. This would see some of the most atrocious of war crimes committed by the combatants and see the intervention of the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia to prevent further blood from being spilled. Many say the cause for the conflict was due to the ethnicities that resided in Yugoslavia, Bosnians, Slovenians, Montenegrins etc. wanted independence and would take means necessary to make it happen.
(From left to right) Yugoslavian M84 tanks in Vukovar during the Croatian War, F-117 Nighthawk taking off from Aviano Air Base, Norwegian peacekeeper during the Siege of Sarajevo, the Vukovar Water tower which was damaged during the war, the Krajina Express which was an armored train used by Krajina, Bosnian soldier attempting to protect civilians from sniper fire.
The first of nations to be independent was Slovenia, engaging Yugoslav forces in a 10-day conflict which saw Slovenia as an independent nation from Yugoslavia after the Brioni Agreement. However, the next 2 conflicts were much bloodier and more gory than the Ten Day War. In the Croatian War of Independence, Croatian rebels not only fought the Yugoslav Army, but also autonomous territories. One of them being the Dubrovnik Republic. War crimes were committed by both sides, but those who paid the price were the civilians as well documented war crimes displayed civilians and POWs being brutally slaughtered. These were the Lovas Massacre, Saborsko Massacre, Dalj Killings and the Zagreb Rocket Attacks, just to name a few. The conflict ended with a Croatian victory under the Sarajevo Agreement. Croatia would keep control of Serbian Krajina and Croatia became and independent nation and would send troops to assist Bosnia and Herzegovina in the next conflict.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was another nation seeking independence and at first, fought with the Croat rebels in the war for independence. However, during the Bosnian War, the gore and the war crimes got more deadly and between 1992 and 1994, it became a three-way war as Bosnia began fighting Herzeg-Bosnia, which was an autonomous nation and Croatia one one side and Republika Srpska, Serbian Krajina and Western Bosnia on a separate side. This saw more war crimes as the Yugoslav Wars was marked for ethnic cleansing campaigns committed by all factions. But rape and genocide were also present during the Bosnian War. By 1995, NATO intervened on behalf of Bosnia, Herzeg-Bosnia and Croatia with bombing campaigns against what was now the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the autonomous territories of Republika Srpska and Serbian Krajina. The Bosnian War ended with an internal partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the deployment of NATO forces to oversee a peace agreement, soon, Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized as a legitimate country, but Republika Srpska, despite retaining a huge Serbian population would be recognized as Bosnian territory.
For a time being, it looked like the war was over. FR Yugoslavia was now led by Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Croatia were now independent countries, but a new war had begun. On the 27th of May, 1995, the FR Yugoslavia had to contend with rebellions breaking out in what is modern-day Kosovo. The KLA had launched an uprising against FR Yugoslavia and another war was beginning. This time, it would be the Kosovo War. The Kosovo War then became another war that would see FR Yugoslavia caught with war crimes against civilians and NATO intervention in the form of airstrikes. The Kosovo War ended in 1999 with the Kumanovo Treaty which would see the formation of a peacekeeping organization known as Kosovo Force or KFOR. KFOR consisted of much of NATO including non-NATO members in Europe, Switzerland, Morocco, Russia and the UAE to establish peacekeeping missions in the region. Some members withdrew as countries, notably Spain and Romania had feared that if their government recognized Kosovo, separatists movements, mainly Catalonia and Székely would use it as justification for their calls of independence.
The final nail in the coffin for FR Yugoslavia would come soon when Macedonia ended another conflict with the National Liberation Army and the Albanian National Army in 2001, Montenegro declared independence on May 21st, 2005, making Serbia a landlocked nation, and soon, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17th, 2008. But, Kosovo is not a member of the UN as Russia who is an ally of Serbia vetoed Kosovan membership to the UN. As of now, much of the EU, (with the exception of Spain, Vatican City, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Greece, Moldova and Slovakia) the GCC, a handful of African countries and other nations in South America and Asia have official diplomatic ties and recognize Kosovo.
Transnistrian Conflict[]
See: Dirty Bomb, Renegade Province Fueling tensions between Russia and Moldova, Transnistria Smuggling Weapons
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Moldova and Ukraine were quick in declaring their independence. However, a population of Russians living in between the two became paranoid that their identities would be integrated into Moldavian and Ukrainian nationalities. Instead, they formed their own country, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
Instead of accepting the independent country, Moldavian forces quickly entered the country in 1990 and soon, an armed conflict emerged with Moldova invading Transnistria and the nation itself on the defense, with Moldova supported by Romanian volunteers, and Transnistria supported by Russian and Ukrainian volunteers, in a Sarajevo styled sniper war, before hostilities ended in 1992. Russian peacekeepers ended up in Transnistria to help govern the nation, but even when the military hostilities were over, political tensions weren't.
Western intelligence suggested that Transnistria utilizes factories from the Soviet Union and is using it to create weapons and illegally smuggle them to conflict hotspots such as in Abkhazia, Chechen terrorists and Arab states. These built weapons ranging from Kalashnikov riles, to Grad rocket tubes and Dirty Bombs, which are missiles with warheads containing radioactive waste. Some also claim that its a breeding ground of corruption and criminals as some claim it acts as a safe haven for Ukrainian and Russian criminals, and that gangs have smuggled themselves into Moldova, and then into Romania, as it is claimed to be a Blackhole of Europe.
During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, some sources from the west claim that the Russians are planning on using Transnistria as a base in order to attack its neighbor Moldova and from there, even extend into Ukraine as a means of conducting other operations to halt any supplies bound for Ukraine.
Wars in Africa: Mercenaries fight on[]
See: Soldiers of Fortune, Wagner Group, When Russia and Ukraine Fought A Secret War In Africa, Executive Outcomes and Blood Diamonds
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many former pilots from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia would find jobs as taxi drivers as air travel after the USSR collapsed began to die down and aircraft across the former-Soviet Republics began being sold or scrapped. Until shady recruitment agencies enlisted these pilots to fly airlines within Africa as air travel was booming and with the purchase of aircraft from the former USSR, the countries didn't have enough money to afford training simulations to train the pilots, hence why the former USSR pilots were hired. However, the pilots would be drafted into the darker part of their recruitment as they would begin piloting fighter jets and combat helicopters that the African nations and even rebels purchased weapons with blood money to wage war against rebel factions or against other countries. But due to the lack of proper infrastructure and trained crews for these weapons, the African nations and rebels turned to the Soviet pilots for help, and they complied with 500 fighter pilots and 500 civilian pilots flying aircraft over the many warzones of Africa.
Executive Outcomes mercenaries in Sierra Leone. c.1995
In the Sierra Leone Civil War, Executive Outcomes made an appearance once again on the stage, acting on behalf of the government fighting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) over the control of the country's diamond deposits. Much of Sierra Leone's diamond mines were in the east and can easily benefit the government once mined and exported. This caused the civil war to erupt and gave the RUF an advantage as they held the diamond mines and sent their diamonds to the other African countries in their region for weapons purchasing. Executive Outcomes was called to deal with the rebels and was paid by the Sierra Leone government. The South African PMC group did not just contain professional soldiers, but also operated equipment Sierra Leone purchased, mainly, Mi-24 and Mi-8 "Hip" helicopters, BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle and 2 T-72 tanks. The helicopters would be reportedly be piloted by Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian pilots, with reports being confirmed as 3 Ukrainian pilots would be killed and 4 Russian pilots would be held hostage.
Executive Outcomes even had an airline called Ibis Air, which partnered with Executive Outcomes, and was primarily utilized for medevac purposes using Boeing 727 airliners. The airline also had a small quantity of Soviet made MiG-23 Floggers, Pilatus PC-7s that were converted for recon and ground attack roles, and had MiG-27s and Su-25 Frogfoots loaned to them via the Angolan Air Force. The Sierra Leone Civil War would end with the RUF defeated after the retaking of Freetown by government forces but not before Sierra Leone would give in to UN pressure and terminate Executive Outcomes' contract in turn for an ineffective UN Peacekeeping Force to be deployed to Sierra Leone, which was more expensive and deemed unreliable with peacekeeping missions. Executive Outcomes would dissolve on December 31st, 1998.
Angola was a major part of Russian arms exports due to the USSR's support for the Cuban Expeditionary Force to support the MPLA but by the early 1990s, there were only occasional weapon shipments sent to the communist rebels, but as the war continued to rage on, the MPLA would import more Soviet-built aircraft and former-Soviet pilots from Belarus and Russia, and in contrast, the UNITA would import Soviet-built anti-air systems and Ukrainian pilots. Executive Outcomes was also hired by Angola's Government and proved effectively fighting UNITA forces and helped Angola and the MPLA retake vital oil facilities north of the country. Executive Outcomes was contracted to fight the UNITA and support the MPLA, and with reports from Angolan officials, the mercenaries showed more combat skill against UNITA and managed to take strategic oilfields for the Angolan government forces.
In the First Congo War, Zaire employed a mercenary group named the White Legion. The legion consisted of mercenaries with nationalities reporting from former pilots from Yugoslavia. Mobutu had recruited these soldiers from Republika Srpska, part of the 10th Sabotage Detachment that fought in the Bosnian War. The detachment was deployed on January 14th, 1997. During the conflict, the soldiers fought in the Congolese city of Kisangani against the invading Ugandan and Rwandan forces. Unlike Executive Outcomes which only had a small quantity of tanks and only one helicopter, the White Legion reportedly had Soko J-21 Jastreb and Soko G-2 Galeb attack aircraft, an Antonov AN-26 transport and Hawker Siddeley Andover transport aircraft, and Pilatus PC-6 recon planes. Apart from access to Mi-24 helicopters, White Legion also had access to SA 330 Pumas, and SA 341 Gazelles. However, the jets weren't used effectively due to a lack of communication with Zairean ground forces and were overall unreliable. The conflict ended with Mobutu being toppled from power and the formation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1993, the tensions with Ethiopia were still present with many reasons, with the main reason being with territorial dispute on the town of Badme which is in Ethiopia but claimed by Eritrea and with no compromise, in May 1998 Eritrea would invade and occupy the town. Ethiopia would retaliate with attacking Eritrean border units near the town, but at that point it escalated into full-on war. Because it became a full-on war between 2 nations, many countries such as Georgia, China and other nations began selling weapons to both countries with Russia and Bulgaria being the biggest suppliers, with Bulgaria sending teams of technicians and trainers to Ethiopia. Since 1977, the USSR had militarily supported Ethiopia began sending weapon systems to Ethiopia once again. By the end of 1988, 500 Russian technicians and pilots were in Ethiopia launching raids against Eritrean cities and supporting Ethiopian Air Force sorties. Ethiopia would also receive new aircraft such as Su-27 fighter jets. Eritrea's air force on the other hand was still underdeveloped and growing. They only had a handful of aircraft by the start such as Aermacchi MB-339s. Eritrea would contact Ukraine and Ukrainian Air Force pilots would help train Eritrea's pilots while supplying Eritrea with anti-air missile systems to counter Ethiopia's air raids and as further support, send Ukrainian technicians to Eritrea with shipments being done by Ukrainian aircraft. Russia did supply Eritrea with weapons, such as MiG-29s for their air force, although they would be from previous arms deals. At that point, the air war was already on as Russian and Ethiopian piloted aircraft into Eritrea while Eritrean forces with Ukrainian built AA missiles shooting down approximately 4 aircraft and conducting raids of their own. By 2000, the war would begin to slow down politically as Rwanda and the US made a peace deal that most African nations agreed with by February. Because of Eritrea's refusal in the peace agreement, Ethiopia would launch one more offensive, capturing Badme and with the Russian pilots, launch and air raid on Assab. By the 18th of June, 2000, Eritrea made peace with Ethiopia. After the war, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia called all their technicians back.
In the Second Libyan Civil War, a Russian mercenary group known as the Wagner Group is seen fighting for the the House of Representatives, led by Khalifa Haftar. Sudanese mercenaries paid by the UAE were also seen fighting for Haftar, known as the Rapid Support Forces. The Wagner Group was paid by Haftar to fight against the Government of National Accord since 2018.
The Wagner Group is also seeing combat in the current Mali War fighting Islamists and Azawad rebels in the north, and fighting in the Central African Republic, fighting with France, mainly against rebels. The United Nation outlaws the use of mercenaries but the law has been called into question as their peacekeeping process has been called into question, and many are calling for the United Nations to be privatized and have these mercenaries take the place of the UN peacekeepers since the reliability of the United Nations' peacekeeping nations has been called into judgmental questioning after serious repercussions, sexual abuse scandals and other incidents.
Congo Conflicts[]
To understand the conflicts in the Congo, look at two ethnicities that reside around the combat zones. They are Hutus and Tutsis. These groups reside mostly in Central Africa and are common to find in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and the DR Congo. However, with both groups living together, it is bound to cause trouble, and the results have been deadly. Rwanda's largest ethnic group are Hutus, making up roughly 85% of the population, while Tutsis make up 14% and the Twa make up 1% of Rwanda's population, in neighboring Burundi, it is the same with 85% of Burundians being Hutus. Hutus live on the eastern side of the DR Congo. The main differences between these two groups are that Hutus are mainly agricultural and lived in large family groups and are interested with political structures, while the Tutsis were nomadic and began arriving in the Great Lakes region. When these two groups mingle in a society, the results won't end well.
Amidst the Rwandan Civil War in 1994, Hutu extremists attacked the Tutsi communities in Rwanda, killing roughly 500,000 to 62,000 Tutsis, along with minor Hutu and Twa groups were killed over 100 days. These extremists would then disperse over the border into Rwanda's neighbor, Zaire. This in the end then created a Tutsi diaspora. This then called for a cry of vengeance against the extremists and called for action. In 1996, Rwandan and Ugandan forces, supported by a man known as Laurent Kabila along with Congolese rebels invaded Zaire, known as the First Congo War.
The Rwandan-Ugandan coalition with Kabila and the rebels weren't alone though. Eritrea and Burundi joined the invading force of Zaire with similar ties and causes in their way of joining the conflict. Rwanda and Uganda at the time were controlled by Tutsi related governments, and Rwanda's motives to depose Mobutu was due to the genocide and cross-border raids committed by multiple guerilla groups. Because of the raids, it brought scary flashbacks of the previous Hutu government. Uganda had a similar cause since they also engaged in cross-border violence against Sudanese groups such as the Allied Democratic Forces. For a time, the conflict was at a stalemate until Angola intervened against Mobutu due to his support for anti-communist forces in Angola, sealing the fate of Zaire. The soldiers that Kabila led were Tutsis and had sought interests in a state that can assure security of their people. By May 1997, Mobutu was toppled from power and Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo. Peace only lasted for one year in the country. While Kabila was the president of the DR Congo, his country was filled with military units and advisors from his allies and those in Kinshasa wondered if those who put him in power was just a puppet. Those who had put him in power wished for a better puppet. Despite being leader, he failed to prevent more cross-border raids against his allies, but even began openly supporting them, and attempted to alienate himself from the Tutsis, especially those that had put him in power, he could create a more stable and reliable political base. This then lead to the Second Congo War.
Map of the 2nd Congo War with concurrent conflicts in Congo Brazzaville, Angola and Sudan. circa. 1998
This time, the DR Congo would fight its former allies Uganda and Rwanda. Kabila then dismissed his former Chief of Staff from Rwanda, James Kabarebe and requested all units from Rwanda and Uganda depart the country. On August, the 10th Brigade of the Congolese Army in the city of Goma defected from Kabila and called themselves the RCD (Rally for Congolese Democracy) and allied with Uganda and Rwanda. Once again, Rwanda and Uganda, supported by Burundi invaded the DR Congo. The RCD led coalition was almost successful in a military operation dubbed, Operation Kitona. The operation, led by James Kabarebe included four Boeing airliners with approx. 200 Ugandan and Rwandan commandos and seized the airfield. The garrison defending the airbase immediately surrendered after the commandos landed in Kitona. The city itself was not far from the capital, Kinshasa. The airbase would then be used as a forward base for the soldiers and rebels for supply lines and for their march to the capital. However, it was disrupted when Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe joined the war on behalf of Kabila. Angola and Zimbabwe were important and provided air support and ground forces that Kabila desperately needed. Zimbabwe and Angola had shared Marxist leanings with Kabila as well as financial interests. Angola in particular was concerned that Uganda and Rwanda were supporting the UNITA rebels and once Angola joined the conflict, the Ugandan-Rwandan support for UNITA became absolute. Sudan once again joined Kabila's side funding more cross-border violence with the Allied Democratic Forces and Lord's Resistance Army. Even the Ugandan and Rwandan alliance began to splinter, due to the RCD had broken into splintered factions. This led two to enter a Six-Day war of their own in the city of Kisangani. Despite peace talks being hosted by Nelson Mandela and Muammar Gaddafi, it did little to stop the bloodshed of the multi-polar conflict and fighting raged on until 2003, when a soldier assassinated Kabila, which was ultimately the end of the conflict and saw Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi begin long withdrawals from the DR Congo, and saw the arrival of a United Nations Peacekeeping force into the country, but did little to stop violence in the country. Another war broke out in 2004. The Congo Wars or often dubbed, the African World Wars had death tolls similar to that of World War II, with the wars having an approx. death toll of 5.4 million deaths.
Rough map of the Kivu Conflict
Fighting this time ended up in the eastern end of the DR Congo, near the Rwandan, Burundian and Ugandan borders of the country with rebellions from previously mentioned factions occurring and with a new movement, simply titled the March 23 Movement (M23) uprising in 2012. UN forces supported by a joint military division from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania intervened against the M23 rebels, but the LRA and other groups were still active, and the conflict, still ongoing would spill into neighboring Central African Republic and newly independent South Sudan. The ongoing conflict and poor management of the UN has caused massive amounts of refugees to spill into the neighboring countries. This also saw the exploitation of minerals and sexual abuse and the recruitment of child soldiers. The UN's lack of unification for the peacekeeping has been called into question due to recent protests against the UN soldiers. To this very day, the conflict in the Congo still rages on and the UN continues to see controversy due to the efforts that it attempts to uphold.
Donbass War[]
The Donbass War was an armed conflict in the eastern province of Ukraine as rebels from Donetsk and Luhansk which were pro-Russian launched multiple rebellions against the Ukrainian Government, amidst turmoil it was facing. Throughout the war, Luhansk and Donetsk became unrecognized republics, commonly referred to as Donbass.
After Ukraine's independence from the USSR, at first, the country was in it's sphere of influence being part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In a 2002 article by British academic expert, Taras Kuzio, it stated that while Russia has accepted Ukrainian independence, Putin has attempted to draw Ukraine closer in it's sphere of influence, and was present on the eastern provinces of Ukraine. Eastern Ukrainian oligarchs who don't harbor anti-Russian sentiment were more likely to cooperate with Russia than those in Odessa. In 2011, Taras stated about traditional Soviet policy of dividing eastern Ukraine and western Ukraine, then "bourgeois nationalists" and the "crazy Galicians" remain in their place. A tactic like this was employed, but rather deliberately by the Yanukovych Administration in a promoting strategy, through divide and rule for further cooperation with Putin, China and socialists in the European Parliament.
By February of 2014, analysts stated that Russia was able to do the following:
- Control gasoline shipments to Ukraine
- Drastically change gas prices to give Ukraine fiscal disadvantages
- Flood Ukrainian TVs with anti-western propaganda with fascists threats
- Impose arbitrary trading restrictions with Ukraine's exports
- Cause secessionist sentiment in Crimea and Donetsk.
It was clear that Russia was able to manipulate Ukraine to it's full advantage and that the Kremlin holds a tight grip with Yanukovych. In a national survey from March to April of 2014, it was found that 31% of voters wanted to leave Ukraine and the 58% wanted autonomy within Ukraine. The polls were met with large protests and huge discontent with Ukraine's new government, and Russia managed to infiltrate the cracks, and sent military support to Russian citizens in Donetsk, and creating separatist movements, with the rebels supported by Russian volunteers and materiel. Russia began an employed "hybrid approach" during the war's escalation during May of 2014 which included misinformation campaigns, regular military support, regular Russian soldiers and guerilla fighters to keep Donbass destabilized.
Ukraine was taken by surprise and sent troops to combat the growing rebel threats and launched "anti-terrorist operations" against the rebels and waged a war against the Russian Federation. The rebels by that point managed to control many cities within their oblasts and included Sloviansk, Mariupol, Horlivka, Kramatorsk, Yenakiieve, Makiivka, Druzhkivka and Zhdanivka. It is claimed that the rebels had full support from Russia which included vehicles like BMP-2s, T-80s and some weaponry seized from museums and put into working order. After 2014, heavy fighting would rage on for a good chunk of the 2010s before the full-scale Russian invasion 8 years later.
Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
Civilians weren't safe from the fighting either as many lived in the separatist controlled areas, as during a shelling operation against Donetsk, 10 civilians were killed and a vast majority died during the first 2 years of fighting, some of them from mines and ordnance that failed to detonate. Of some of these deaths was also in the form of a civilian airliner, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that departed Amsterdam and bound for Kuala Lumpur was flying around stormy clouds, a separatist Buk-M1-2 SAM system detected the Boeing 777 flying over it's airspace and fired a missile containing cluster warheads, shredding the aircraft into segments before falling. All 298 passengers and crew were killed. On a cross-border shelling operation, 11 Russian journalists, an Italian journalist, a Lithuanian diplomat and one Russian civilian were killed as shells landed on a border town of Donetsk. Even in the early stages of the conflict, 730,000 civilians had fled fighting and left for Russia or westward and the number of refugees only drastically increased after the conflict took a sharp escalation in August as the number doubled to 260,000. A report by the UN OHCHR stated that 3 million continued to live in the conflict zones as of March 2016 and included 2.7 million who lived in the DPR and LPR-controlled areas. The Ukrainian government even had to register an approximate of 1.6 million that were internally displaced within those living in Ukraine with 1 million seeking asylum elsewhere, with the majority fleeing to Russia. It was later identified that those who fed the violence sought asylum in Russia, Italy, Germany, Spain and Poland.
Second Yemeni Civil War[]
The Second Yemeni Civil War, which began in late 2014, with Yemen's Hadi government against the Supreme Political Council and Houthi rebels is one of the worst wars of the Middle East which displayed gruesome tactics, similar to that of Napoleon Bonaparte's Invasion of Spain, the Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan War and is one of the many wars of the Saudi-Iranian Proxy Conflict and highlights the effective usage of guerilla warfare and clear Geneva Convention violations, causing one of the worst humanitarian crisis in history.
The conflict began with protests against president Hadi and his associates in 2014 as he had made cuts to fuel subsidiaries which he believed were unpopular with the group, the Houthis who fought the Yemeni Army. In the first battle of Sana'a, the Houthis managed to take over much of the area surrounding Sana'a and the province it was based in by September of the same year. In January of 2015, the Houthis were unhappy with a proposal to split Yemen into six federal regions, the rebels attacked and seized the presidential compound in Sana'a and prompted Hadi and his ministers to resign. With the Houthis in control of Sana'a, they announced the dissolution of Yemen's parliament and the creation of a Revolutionary Committee that would govern the nation on February 6th of 2015. On the 21st, Hadi was confined to his residence in Sana'a, but slipped out and fled for Aden. He announced that the takeover of the Houthis was illegitimate and insisted that he remain the constitutional president of Yemen. Saleh, who was the previous president demanded the exile of Hadi and denounced his claims. In wake of this, the Houthis went after Hadi's loyalist forces and engaged Hadi's army in the Battle of Aden International Airport on March 19th of 2015, in which the Hadi loyalists had won.
Despite the victory at Aden, one day after the battle, on March 20th of 2015, the Sana'a Mosque Bombing occurred and in a televised speech, the leader of the Houthi rebels made the decision to mobilize for war and was "imperative" under the circumstances as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had allied with Hadi. Hadi declared Aden to be the temporary capital of Yemen as Sana'a was under Houthi control. On March 21st, Hadi proclaimed that "We will restore security to the country and hoist the flag of Yemen in Sana'a, instead of the Iranian flag."
(From left to right): Emirati soldiers next to artillery, Sudanese soldiers with allied insurgents, Moroccan soldiers in a jeep, Saudi motorized forces moving through, Egyptian convoy on the move, Senegalese soldiers in a pickup truck
On the 26th of March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a coalition comprising of those in the GCC (with the exception of Oman), Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Senegal launched an intervention in the Yemeni Civil War to respond for Hadi's call of military support after being ousted. The conflict once again reignited with the Houthis engaging government forces with an escalation in violence. With Saudi Arabia and it's allies now in the conflict, it began with Operation Decisive Storm in which aircraft from the coalition would launch air strikes against Houthi military positions, and then the establishment of a naval blockade before deploying ground assets against the Houthis. A mercenary group was contracted to take part in the operation, that being the Academi or formerly known as Blackwater took part in the operations. King Salman declared a no-fly zone around Yemen's airspace and declared the Royal Saudi Air Force to be in full control. With US surveillance, Saudi Arabia launched air strikes against the Houthi positions in and around Sana'a. On March 26th, air strikes also hit Houthi controlled Al Anad Air Base with the targets being fuel depots and missile bases. During this time, Egypt and Saudi Arabia sent naval vessels to establish a blockade to prevent any ships supplying the rebels from entering with warships from both navies taking up positions along the Bab al-Mandab Strait with the Saudi military threatening to sink any vessels making port. Egyptian warships began to bombard Aden as Houthi forces began a charge at Aden International Airport. The foreign minister from Djibouti claimed that the Houthis deployed heavy weapons on an island near the strait and claimed it posed a big danger for his country due to Djibouti's position for trading. Sudan had deployed forces along the Saudi border to protect it from any form of Houthi attacks due to several clashes and both the Saudis and Houthis exchanging artillery fire. The coalition with Hadi's loyal forces would engage in fighting against the Houthis in attempts to retake Sana'a and overthrow the Iranian-backed Houthis but the coalition would begin to lose traction nearing the areas surrounding Sana'a, due to extensive use of guerilla warfare. Some countries began scaling down their participation with Sudan reducing the amount of troops in Yemen. This even saw Al-Qaeda and ISIS enter the stage of the conflict capturing several towns and other strategic areas along the costal area. The Emirates began spearheading an intervention of it's own it was clear that the coalition was beginning to see flaws in it's operations. Qatar, an ally of the coalition was expelled in 2019 over allegations of it's support for Iranian backed groups in other hotspot conflicts such as Libya. All Qatari military assets withdrew from the country and weakened the coalition strength.
Also in 2019, the UAE began to alienate itself from the Saudi coalition seeking it's own objectives with a new group that emerged from the conflict, being the Southern Transitional Council. The STC began uprisings and clashes in the city of Aden, which was Hadi's stronghold. The UAE began more open support for the STC and much of Yemen's coastline was under it's control. Adding more cracks in the coalition, the UAE seized the Yemeni island of Socotra along the archipelago without any coordination with Saudi Arabia, attempting to seize political clout in the battlefield before an ultimatum demanded that Emirati soldiers depart the island. The Emirates was attempting to provide further support for the STC with better supply lines. The war right now hasn't developed much, but other events have signified the war is not over.
The Houthis, being supported by Iran have received military support in the form of gaining Iranian made drones and missiles, in which the Houthis would use against the coalition. In 2014, the Houthis used an OTR-21 Tochka ICBM attacked Safir base in Marib and killed 5 Bahraini soldiers, 10 Saudis and 52 Emirati soldiers, and is considered the deadliest attack on Emirati soldiers. From 2019-2021, the Houthis launched drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil facilities not far from Riyadh. In 2022, the Houthis launched more ICBMs directed at Abu Dhabi. While some of the missiles were shot down, other missiles hit tanker trucks and killed 3 civilians, 2 Indians from Punjab and 1 Pakistani from Waziristan. In retaliation, the coalition began launching more air strikes against the Houthis once more.
Rubble and debris lay everywhere after air strikes by the coalition
The Second Yemeni Civil War has also seen massive casualties on the civilian front and has created the "Worst humanitarian crisis ever" as the UN has observed thousands of Yemenis fleeing their country. During the Saudi air strikes, the coalition have not just targeted Houthi military areas, but have also bombed civilian areas across Sana'a, killing children, hospitals and even funeral processions. Relief aid workers have also been reportedly been attacked by the Saudi coalition from the air strikes. The blockade by the navies of Saudi Arabia and Egypt have not just prevented weaponry for the Houthis arriving, but have also prevented relief aid for those still stuck in the country. With a lack of food arriving in the country, it has caused mass famine around the country and reported to have a lack of clean water. It didn't help as the United States, Saudi Arabia's closest ally has been also participating in the blockade and selling weaponry for Saudi Arabia and it's allies still in combat. Yemen is yet to see peace now with a refugee and humanitarian crisis now in it's hands and full of alliances with complex interests, its easy to say that the war will be a while.
Second Libyan Civil War[]
The Second Libyan Civil War was rather one of the more complex wars that have been fought prior to the outbreak of World War III and while a deadly conflict, it had involved great powers and minor powers from Europe and the Middle East and fought between two opposing governments to gain control over the country with the Government of National Accord being supported by Turkey, Qatar and much of the European Union, and the House of Representatives backed by Russia, Egypt, France and the United Arab Emirates, and rather making the alliances in the conflict, rather complex and tangled and due to Libya's strategic importance with North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.
Protests in Libya during the GNC's rule
The tensions began to boil after NATO's 2011 airstrike campaign in the First Libyan Civil War, killing Muammar Gaddafi and ending authoritarian rule in Libya and one of the rebel groups that opposed Gaddafi being the General National Congress took power, after winning the 2012 elections and governed Libya for only 2 years. The GNC was composed of 2 major political groups, that being the National Forces Alliance and the Justice and Construction Party. During the GNC's governing, the 2 groups in the parliament had failed in reaching compromises for the important issues the GNC was facing. The ongoing disputes between the 2 meant that Libya's new government. The GNC had members that were associated with conservative Islamist groups, including revolutionary groups and many of those members in the GNC entered into a conflict against the other members due to association with militias and even alleged that some were channeling government funds towards rogue armed groups in order to conduct assassinations and kidnappings. With increasing internal discontent, voting declared Sharia Law establishing a special committee to review the existing laws and made sure that they correlated with the original Islamic laws, but also meant that gender segregation was implemented and made it mandatory for women to wear hijabs, but the GNC then began to refuse new elections after the mandate expired in January of 2014. It was only then when one of the Libyan army generals who had originally sided with the rebels launched a military offensive against the Islamists, named Operation Dignity. It was lead by Khalifa Haftar.
From 2013 to 2014, the GNC would continue to deteriorate and the discontent was clearer day by day and violence began to quickly spread around the country with factions being created and fighting each other and the government. The 2 major factions that managed to form out of the ruins of the GNC is the Libyan National Army with a government based in Tobruk, and the Government of National Accord based in Tripoli. The violence quickly escalated as both began fighting for control over the country with much of the LNA holding the eastern areas of Libya reaching the Egyptian and Sudanese borders, while the GNC held much of west Libya reaching the Tunisian, Algerian and Niger border. Despite the uprisings led by Haftar being quelled in western Libya, much of the east was in his hands and the country quickly was engulfed in war.
LNA improvised rocket launcher vehicle in the desert
Throughout the rest of 2014, the LNA gained good chunks of ground against the GNC due to strategic support from countries like Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Another group formed during the conflict in southwestern Libya known as the Tuareg militias, that allied with the GNA. Islamic State and Mujahideen also appeared in the conflict with the Mujahideen engaging the LNA in the costal city of Benghazi and an ISIS uprising in one of Libya's provinces held by both the LNA and GNC by early 2015. Other ISIS uprisings broke out near Tobruk by February 2015 and on the city of Sirte and south near the Niger and Algerian borders. Local forces sporadically began to pop up during the conflict and the Tuareg militias began to gain ground reaching much of the Algerian border and parts of Tunisia's border. By August of 2015, much of the fighting had reduced to a stalemate and by September, the Petroleum Facilities Guard was established along the coastline around the city of Ras Lanuf and near Benghazi. From October to December it became another stalemate, but by December, combat began with the local forces being eradicated in small bits and the GNC, supported by the EU (except France) began offensives against the Tuareg militias and the GNC forces as well as the local militias.
By 2016, the fighting was more sporadic as much of it became deadly skirmishes, but the LNA began making gains against the Mujahideen and other parts of the LNA-held territory. But by March, GNC uprisings once again appeared on northwest Libya, fighting ISIS forces, and by April, an agreement is signed.
Italian Coastguard with Libyan migrant ship
In the Libyan Political Agreement, the GNC is dissolved and replaced by the UN-backed Government of National Accord, which was internationally recognized, and the Petroleum Facilities Guard joins the new GNA. After it is signed, ISIS begins making maneuvers but by May, the GNA began crushing ISIS attacks and even managed to get to the stronghold around Sirte. With support from the United Kingdom, United States and Italy Sirte was retaken by the GNA in December. Another faction rose in Libya by the name of the National Salvation Government supported by Qatar, Sudan, Turkey and Iran and once again by 2017, all combat slowed down and another stalemate settled in during February apart from other NSG uprisings in northern Libya. March saw more skirmishes and fighting between the GNA and LNA near Sirte, Bin Jawad and Ras Lanuf as the LNA began to make gains against the GNA. As the rest of 2017 and 2018 saw the LNA make dangerous gains against the UN-recognized government with the Mujahideen Council finally defeated after years long siege in Benghazi, and with the LNA crushing Protection Forces and Defense Brigades in Benghazi and the old city of Derna.
2019 would see the Toubou and Tuareg militias unite with the GNA to fight a growing LNA advance but much of the southern areas of Libya would fall to Haftar's army. By 2019, 95% of Libya was controlled by Haftar's forces and fighting ravaged the country and sporadic fighting would endure for the rest of the year as the LNA and GNA continued fighting each other and what remains of the ISIS forces.
By 2020, the GNA made a comeback gaining much of west Libya from the clutches of the LNA and by the time their offensive was over, a ceasefire was called by the UN, ratified on October 23rd, 2020 with the creation of the Government of National Unity on the 10th of March.
The conflict was not just marked for the brutality that was seen, but also the complex alliances at hand in the war as some countries took different sides to support Haftar's forces and Tripoli's forces, as well as having Libya's position on the Mediterranean Sea and south of Europe, some of the regional powers also were involved.
In support of Haftar's Army was mainly Egypt, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as the main supporters in the conflict for varying reasons. Egypt's role was major and had been using it's vast border to allegedly smuggle weapons to support Haftar and his forces in their fight as well as financial aid. Sudan, while not directly involved has been deploying mercenaries paid by the United Arab Emirates to fight alongside Haftar, known as the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force operated by Sudan's Government and was part of the 2019 Western Libya Offensive with a rough estimate of 1000 RSF personnel present by July of 2019, despite Sudan's claims of backing the UN-recognized GNA. Chad's involvement was under the allegations of having Chadian mercenaries deployed with Haftar.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the more major supporters of the LNA with providing financial aid, training to Haftar's forces and even with the deployment of aircraft launching air strikes from bases in Cairo to support Haftar's army. It was alleged that the UAE was supplying Haftar with Chinese-made Wing Loong drones which have been used to conduct air strikes. UAE support was further cemented when a weapons cache of American-made Javelin ATGM systems was discovered, despite Emirati claims of no involvement with the shipments. Reports also came in of the LNA receiving wheeled APCs such as NIMR Abjan A40s and Panthera T6s and reports of small arms, with one example being the Caracal Pistol. Much of Saudi Arabia's involvement of supporting the LNA has been unclear and info is limited on the extent of Saudi Arabia's support. France has been accused of it's support for the LNA with rather conflicting reports of French Army advisors and other allegations of France having weapon caches like the UAE found in the country.
Russia was another major player in Libya with other allegations of the Federation providing weapons and even deploying the dreaded Wagner Group to support Haftar during the late stages of the war in 2019. Despite these mercenaries involved, Russia has denied any direct involvement in the war, but some rather conflicting reports claim that contractors of Russian nationality are still present in Libya, supporting the Libyan National Army. There have been numerous allegations of Israel being involved in the conflict, but like the case with Saudi Arabia, these reports are unknown and unconfirmed due to the little information that there is on it's involvement. To a lesser extent, Greece, Cyprus, Belarus and Jordan have been involved with support for Haftar as there have been rumors and conflicting reports of Jordanian military advisors in the country. With Belarus, Greece and Cyprus, their support is rather on the smaller side compared to the other countries vying for Haftar's support.
Turkish convoy in Libya
In support of the GNA, the major players on that side of the coin is Turkey, Italy, Malta, Qatar and much of the European Union with the exception of France, Greece and Cyprus with the UK and United States acting as the main supporters of the United Nations-recognized Tripoli government. Turkey and Qatar act as the front of their support with economical assistance and military aid. Turkey stepped up it's support with the deployment of tanks, trucks and other vehicles including Syrian mercenaries to Tripoli in support of the Tripoli government. There have even been reports of drones being delivered to the GNA forces to conduct air strikes of their own. The Turkish forces played a major role in driving Haftar's army away from much of Western Libya before the war came to an end pushing Haftar's army away from Sirte. Italy and much of the European Union have provided diplomatic and financial support and are involved in efforts to broker a peace deal for the conflict. Italy has been taking in many Libyan refugees from the war and have been taking them in, but other reports suggest that Italy is turning these migrants away back home.
The United States has played a rather passive role in the conflict with diplomatic support for Tripoli and condemning Haftar's offensives on the city, and sending limited aid to the GNA, and deploying medical aid for wounded soldiers and limited military support. Malta also supported the GNA with the allowance of the GNA using it's airspace and waters for military operations and has provided humanitarian assistance to the refugees in fleeing the conflict.
Russian Invasion of Ukraine[]
Russia's invasion of Ukraine was considered one of the major factors in the construction of World War III as it managed to bring a threat to Europe's security and also seeing NATO stand united since the Cold War, and as a sign that the Donbass War had escalated to a deadly matter, since 2014. The invasion resulted with tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and one of Europe's largest refugee crisis since the Second World War, with approximately 8 million Ukrainians fleeing to west Europe.
For much of March and April in 2021, Russia began major military buildups along Ukraine's border with a second buildup in Belarus as well from October 2021 to February 2022. In wake of the buildup, Antoly Antonov, the ambassador to the United States and Alexander Zmeevsky, the ambassador to Czechia claimed that there was no buildup. Instead, when the invasion was launched on the 24th of February 2022, Vladimir Putin announced that it was a "Special Military Operation" but effectively was the declaration of war on Ukraine, claiming that Russia sought the "Demilitarization and Denazification of Ukraine". Within minutes of the speech, explosions from missiles were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa, despite an alleged FSB report that they weren't aware of Putin's plan to invade. Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy announcing Martial Law and the mobilization of Ukrainian men within the age groups from 18 to 60, refusing them to leave the country.
Within hours and days of the invasion, Russia made massive gains against Ukraine with dozens of missile attacks, tanks, infantry, APCs and VDV brigades landing all over Ukraine. Dozens of missile attacks were seen as far as Lviv and Russia steamrolled their attacks for the rest of February and early March of 2022, with many thinking that Russia's capture of Kyiv would be swift, merciless and quick. But with Russia's rapid advances, once on the outskirts of Kyiv, it was clear that they wouldn't be getting into the city as much of their supply lines hadn't been fully prepared and Russia's logistics were overextended and overstretched with a 40-mile convoy stretching north of Kyiv.
Satellite image depicting trucks in a massive line north of Kyiv
Russia's efforts in spearheading to Kyiv were beginning with Spestanz troops dropping into the city as other VDV and mechanized divisions advanced from the north of the city but their attempts were unsuccessful. America offered Zelensky to flee in the event that Kyiv fell to Russia. According to an American senior, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the request for evacuation was, "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." in which was one of the most-cited lines from the invasion, according to the Washington Post. Russian forces that were stationed in Belarus, gained control of the Chernobyl Nuclear Powerplant and the ghost town of Pripyat. VDV would attempt at seizing 2 Ukrainian airfields, launching assaults on Antonov Airport and landing at Vasylkiv Air Base on the 26th of February. Early March had the Russian forces alongside the west of the Dnipro were limited by the Ukrainian defenses as their progress to the capital was hampered by ill-prepared supply convoys.
The rest of March and 2022 would see Russia's northern offensive die down and much of it would be pushed back all the way to the Belarusian border with much of Russia's armory of tanks, armored personnel carriers and even artillery pieces being discarded and left behind and being captured by Ukrainian forces. On the 25th of March, Ukraine would launch a counter-offensive retaking towns west and east of Kyiv which included Makariv. The Russian forces retreated as the Ukrainians entered the city on the 1st of April, recapturing much of the region around Kyiv. The southern front of the war was seen as the more deadlier part of the war as during the invasion, the Ukrainian city of Mariupol fell under a Russian siege with constant shelling and ICBM attacks on the city, as well as a naval blockade of the city itself. Despite a Russian victory in taking the city, Russia suffered many armored vehicles lost and many soldiers killed.
A pinnacle in aviation engineering and history, the Antonov-225 Myria, the biggest cargo plane and the only one was destroyed during the Battle of Antonov Airport.
Russia's Navy would also be involved with the flagship of the navy, the Moskva approached Snake Island escorted by the patrol boat, Vasily Bykov. The Russian captain of the Moskva demanded that those on the island put their arms down and surrender, or be bombed. One of the Ukrainians, believed to be Roman Hrybov responded on the radio to the Moskva, "Русский Военный корабль ИДИ НАХЙ!" Which translates to "Russian Warship, GO FUCK YOURSELF!" Subsequently, Snake Island would be captured by the Russian Marines. It was initially thought that all 13 were killed in the assault. Zelenskyy announced that he would posthumously award those of Snake Island the highest of Ukrainian honor, Hero of Ukraine, but Russia denied that all were killed but had surrendered. On the 28th of February, the guards were confirmed alive by the Ukrainian Navy, and were held by the Russian Navy. On March 24th, a prisoner exchange was made and Hrybov was returned to Cherkasy Oblast and rewarded for his actions. On April 13th, 2 Neptune ASMs struck the Moskva while it was on rough seas and was sunk as it was being towed to the naval base for repairs. The Common Nightingale of Ukraine was fighting back.
The rest of Russia's offensives died down during the rest of 2022 as they struggled to gain control of their frontline and kept falling back into the Luhansk and Donbass areas, with many tanks destroyed in the fighting. But even with Ukraine's gains, the rest of 2022 would see a mostly stagnant frontline with sporadic counter-offensives by each side. Ukraine would receive massive aid from NATO countries with Poland sending MiG-29 fighter jets and PT-91 Twardy tanks, with Germany sending combat helmets, Leopard 2s and BMP-1s that were inherited from East Germany after reunification, the United States sending the lion's share of supplies with Patriot SAM systems, M1 Abram tanks, M2 Bradley IFVs, M113 APCs, M109 Howitzers, Javelin ATGMs, Stinger MANPADs and M142 HIMARS MLRS systems. Other nations such as Sudan, Australia and Pakistan also sent lethal military aid to Ukraine with Ukraine's highest offer of receiving American made-F16 fighter jets. Russia's supply issues meant that they couldn't rush their new tanks such as the T-80UM and T-90 equipped with systems to counter RPGs and ATGMs to the frontline due to their logistical disorganization. In desperation, much of Russia's army would be receiving Mosin-Nagant Bolt Action rifles and some reports suggesting that T-62s, T-55s and T-54s that were put in storage being sent to the frontline due to the sanctions, but not all in vain for Putin as the T-14 "Armata" tanks, as the new generation of Russian tanks were seen being deployed on the battlefield. Iran and China have also been supplying Russia with munitions and drones. Despite Ukraine making major success in their recent counteroffensive, it has also gone under significant stagnation as the munition shortages and the heavy string of defenses managed to benefit the Russian defenders. It also didn't help Ukraine as even their allies slowly turned against them, especially with Hungary and Slovakia, suspending weapon shipments and lobbying for Russian support. Even the US saw themselves retract support as the Republicans began lobbying for an end to weapon shipments to Ukraine.
Russians also began protesting against the war when Putin began calling for mobilization, as the call for mobilization only managed to drive many Russians away from their homeland and flee to other countries since February and with an estimated 900,000 departing the country. The mass emigration would also be supported by Zelenskyy as a method to not finance the war, although many western countries began banning entry of the waves of migrants. Major destinations for the Russians included neighboring countries, the United States and even as far as Latin America, the UAE, Mongolia and Israel. The UAE in particular became a hotspot for Russian oligarchs trying to flee the fighting, with an approximate 100,000 to 500,000 newly registered Russians in Dubai. Majority of EU countries closed airspace with Russia following the invasion, and even saw Finland suspending the railway from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. The Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, along with Czechia and Poland would suspend visas to Russian citizens, while countries such as Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria and Serbia offered to house Russian oppositionists and citizens to stay in their territory and for those who didn't want to go to war in Ukraine. Russians have even tried seeking asylum in the United States, with reports claiming that Russian ships are arriving in charter boats in Key West, and two Russians were found sailing to Alaska to flee the fighting.
The Combatants[]
The Second Entente[]
The Entente of World War III were led by the American-led organization, NATO and included major powers such as Japan, Taiwan, Israel, the GCC coalition in the Gulf, South Korea, India and even as far as Brazil and South Africa. This had included much of the democracies on earth but in the alliance of united democracies, there was also the authoritarian monarchs of Saudi Arabia, UAE, the hybrid-regimes in countries like Congo Brazzaville and Cameroon. This meant that the allies would see backstabbing committed by their own allies, due to the interests of many authoritarianist regimes and other anti-liberalists. The alliance led by Joseph Robinette Biden would see through war until the end.
North America[]
The United States of America led the alliance and was the main global hegemonial power before the war and was already in a hegemonial war with China and Russia, with the tensions created before the war. President Joseph R. Biden, the former vice president of Barack Obama would lead America through the war and narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt during the course of the war.
Joseph Robinette Biden, the de-facto leader of the Second Entente.
Biden was already under pressure after his election following an embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan and live embarrassment on TV. Unlike his Republican Counterpart, Donald J. Trump, he was more willing to engage with his allies in more forms of cooperation and his image was called into question. During the war, he was shown to be put under stress managing the different fronts of the war, especially with Asia and Europe being the chief battlegrounds, and keeping Cuba and Venezuela in check, and would suffer small medical incidents, especially as his age worsened. This would lead to many erratic decisions by him and his cabinet, and thus would cause rifts inside the United States, and was heavily exploited by not just America's adversaries but also within the US, as the Republican Party wanted to paint Joseph Biden in a bad light and try to take power. This would worsen the US from the inside as the public was now in uproar on who to support and was heavily exaggerated by many medias. This would lead to mutual resentment among those within the Senate and the Democratic and Republican Parties.
During the course of World War III, Biden and those in the Democratic Party attempted much cooperation as possible with their overseas allies but with his worsening medical condition due to his old age and rifts that would be caused by controversial decisions from Biden, which would be heavily exploited by thew Republicans, this would lead to extreme rifts within the US and would give rise to a new political party as Republicans and Democrats who shared a common ideology would come out by the end of the war to form the American Isolationist Party, which would act as a measure to prevent America from entering any conflicts after World War III similar to their isolationist stance after World War I, which would put America in a further struggle with the Democrats, Republicans and the new Isolationist Party. These problems, as well as the post-war economic stagnation and post-war order would culminate into the American Political Party Crisis.
Protests against the Democratic Party. This would heavily cause rifts, exploited by those the Democrats despised, and caused rifts in American unity.
Canada played a major part in the war as a NATO ally, joining after Canadian forces were bombarded in the Baltic states during the initial phases of Russia's invasion of Europe. During the war, Canada committed heavily to the war effort with troops in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland and to a lesser extent, in the Mediterranean and Greece, while supporting the efforts in Korea and fighting the hastily failed invasion on Alaska, Vancouver Island and the assault on Seattle. Canada would also contribute forces to Greenland to repel a failed Russian invasion.
Mexico only joined the war for Entente support during the late stages, fearing a successful Sino-Russo invasion of the United States and Canada, and would ask for American support against the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels which had been given weapons and secret training by Cuba. Mexico would also send forces to Honduras to participate in the invasion of Nicaragua and to a lesser extent, support the American Marines in the Invasion of Cuba and would see huge economic and political benefits after the war.
Europe[]
NATO, one of the long standing alliances would finally see it's unity tested in a trial against Russian aggression, but even in success, inner cracks cased NATO to crumble down.
Europe was mainly led by the joint leadership of the United Kingdom, Germany and France, activating their NATO alliance with the rest of those in the alliance and including the EU in cooperation with the United States, in a united war against Russian aggression and protection of democracy. Much of the European continent was either under the alliance of the EU or NATO, with the exception of Ireland and the microstates. Due to the many cracks within the EU, mainly with Viktor Orban leading Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and the anti-EU political parties, mainly the Alternative for Deutschland and the Attack Party of Bulgaria, Europe struggled to keep itself united and Russia began attempting to slip into the cracks, especially as countries, notably Hungary and Bulgaria began more closed cooperation with Russia, allowing the frontlines to bend in both favors. Many Russian defectors, mainly Alexei Navalny was the main victim of Russia's discreet attacks in Europe, having been placed under multiple assassination attacks and ordered by hitman to kill him by any means necessary. This was also an addition as Europe had condemned Russia's Annexation of Crimea, Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and with the Chinese treatment of the Uyghur Muslims. Europe would also be at odds with China following the placement of Chinese police stations in European cities as well as many human-rights violations, annexation of Hong Kong and claims on the South China Sea, leading many such as the UK and France to take rather defiant stands against China, threatening to terminate the Belt Road Initiative.
Much of Europe apart from Germany, France and the UK saw this as a battle for their legitimacy and fight for survival as mainly those that bordered Russia or it's allied countries of Belarus, unrecognized Transnistria and Serbia, notably Poland, Finland, the Baltics, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Romania and Greece joined to defend themselves to their fullest might against the invasions on their soil. Sweden was rather hesitant on joining on the war but relented under the threat of facing Russia's invasion. This only meant that Germany, France, the UK, Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Finland and Sweden proved to be the most effective in the European theatre. Spain and Portugal and Italy were also major contributors to the fighting but with Italy and Spain, facing Catalan protests and the Lega Party attempting to prevent Italy from fighting the Russians, they faced a harder time with contributing heavily to the fights, but in made up for it by deploying major support to their allies in North Africa and later Cyprus in the late stages of the war.
Austria joined during the mid-stages of the war fearing a possible Russian success and deployed small amounts of troops to the frontlines in Greece and Ukraine due to Austria standing with Europe against Turkey and Russia. Georgia sided with the allies to claim vengeance against Russia's 2008 invasion into South Ossetia and Abkhazia and hoped in regaining the territories back if Russia was defeated. Azerbaijan did join the war on the side of the Allies mainly pitted against Armenian aggression over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh which had inflamed in 2022 but would switch sides, as it had honored its alliance with Turkey, joining Russia once Turkey betrayed NATO. Despite Azerbaijan's betrayal, they would leave the war unharmed until pressure from Russia and west Europe forced Azerbaijan to abandon it's holdings before the war under the threat of an invasion by German led forces. Despite attempting at maintaining it's neutrality, when the Balkan front escalated, Switzerland began issuing stern warnings that it would join the war, if any infrastructure, civilian, or even other properties of the Swiss Government would be harmed in the crossfire. Eventually, Switzerland would withdraw completely from the war once NATO began their invasion of Serbia and would host peace negotiations near the end of the European front of the war.
Middle East[]
The Middle Eastern front was mostly lead by those of the Gulf Cooperation Council's military division, Peninsula Shield Force, while Qatar would join later. Saudi Arabia was engaged in a cold war of it's own with Iran and was ambitious for regional and religious dominance with the Middle East, as the Wahhabi Regime sought to destroy their arch nemesis by any means necessary with the assistance of the United States and it's allies. The Wahhabi Regime would engage in brutal ethnic cleansing campaigns and using white phosphorus, cluster munitions, and indiscriminate bombings of civilian infrastructure on the battlefields of Yemen and Iraq to gain full dominance within the battlefield, and would contribute a majority of the war crimes associated with the Allies and another rift between many of the Entente countries.
The crucial, but temporary Saudi-Israeli Alliance would be crucial for the allies to fight against Iran in the Middle East.
Other allies of the US and Saudi Arabia consisted of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Kuwait who joined the war to not only honor their alliance and trust with Saudi Arabia but due to the open hostilities with Iran and with the malicious activity in Iraq beginning to spiral out of control, despite Egypt, Jordan and Israel not a part of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Israel played a crucial role in the Middle Eastern front, despite seeking it's own agenda in the war, mainly to deter Hezbollah's increased activity in Lebanon, Syria's regime led by Bashar Al Assad as well as to suppress Palestinian activity as well as to wipe out Iran's Nuclear Program and prevent Iran's obtaining of nuclear weapons. Israel was the more active country on the Middle Eastern front, behind Saudi Arabia and in front of the UAE as they also assisted Lebanese resistance against Hezbollah and even to a lesser extent, would support Greece in their struggle against Turkey. Their campaigns would be met with huge confrontation by many Arab states and even some in Europe due to their punishment of civilians in the Gaza Strip and on West Bank and after the war, while it would escape unscathed, Israel would still be marked as a country on the Second Entente as one of the main Allied War Criminals, but did not face punishment like Saudi Arabia, but was forced to recognize Palestine as an independent nation. With the UAE as a major supporter for Haftar's army however, the UAE allowed for General Haftar and his loyalists to seek asylum until the war was over and the UAE, as well as Egypt, Chad and Greece to expel and extradite Haftar and his loyalists.
Oman and Bahrain would only join the war after being pressured by Saudi Arabia to join the conflict and under the threat of an invasion, while Cyprus allowed for Allied troops from the US, UK, France, Italy and to a lesser extent, Spanish forces to be deployed from Nicosia but their army would not see combat until being invaded by Turkey in their betrayal. Qatar would rather play a conflicting role in the war, initially declaring their neutrality in the conflict, ignoring the call made by Saudi Arabia to join against Iran. Qatar would only join the war after Saudi Arabia invaded the country and Qatar, in response called for Iranian and Turkish support. Qatar would endure a block led by the Saudi navy during the initial days of Qatar's invasion until an agreement in Doha would see Qatar rather forcefully suspend their ties with Iran and Turkey and pledge their allegiance to Saudi Arabia, deploying only to the Iraqi front only landing in Iran.
Asia and Oceania[]
Asia was one of the chief battlegrounds of World War III with most of the warring occurring in mostly US allied countries, and mainly with ASEAN and The Quad Alliance, which proved in playing a significant role for the war. The Eastern Front Allies were spearheaded by Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Australia. Japan and South Korea joined in the first days of the war, openly condemning the aggressive remobilization of Russian forces and increased military drills, especially along the Kuril Islands with ICBMs fired near the East Sea. South Korea was the target of Sino-North Korean aggression which would culminate in the Second Korean War and one of the major battlegrounds of World War III.
South Korean troops training with US advisors
Japan also had historical tensions with China and territorial tensions with China. Taiwan was one of the US' main allies in the war and heavily protected ally. China would always launch wavering claims that Taiwan was rightful Chinese territory and Taiwan claimed that Xi Jinping was infringing on Taiwan's sovereignty. Taiwan would declare war following the Chinese invasion landing on the beaches in the first months of 2024 of the war. Taiwan used all the resources they had, as well as support from the US and Japan, even utilizing the terrain to slow down China's advance, nonetheless, China managed to capture Taipei and Taiwan's government and the bulk of soldiers and equipment fled to the US and Japan and to a lesser extent, the Philippines in exile but still declared a war of rightful sovereignty against the People's Republic until Taiwan's liberation and China's collapse.
India played a major role for the war, challenging China's conquest due to historical tensions and with territorial disputes along their border as well as India being surrounded by Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, which had fallen under Chinese influence. Originally part of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, India attempted to stay neutral in the war but after several incidents along their borders of Myanmar and China, as well as China's relentless conquest and their invasion of Bhutan, India broke ties with the SCO and BRICS and joined the allies, opening another front with China, attempting to save Bhutan from the invasion and opening fronts for Pakistan, but with their armies spread all over fronts along the Himalayas, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar's border, and even parts of the Chinese border, India was forced into a guerilla styled war against most of these frontiers until being relieved by arriving American and Australian forces to push back invading forces and assist in India's multi-front war. Bhutan joined the war after being invaded by Chinese Special Forces, managing to cut off their forces before advancing along the border in China's attempt of launching sneak attacks on India. Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei would join the war united against China mainly with their territorial claims in the South China Sea and with constant Chinese aggression within the region. Thailand would join as well after multiple incidents along their border of Myanmar and pressure from the rest of ASEAN to join the war, despite wanting neutrality. Indonesia would switch sides after being forced to capitulate from their losses against the allies in Papua New Guinea and East Timor. The Philippines waged full war against China sending many troops to the fronts in Vietnam and Korea and allowing for US bombers to deploy from their bases.
Australian soldiers training in the jungle.
Australia and New Zealand, with the Quad and ANZUS Alliances with the United States and Great Britain joined the war, mainly focusing their efforts in saving East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea, concentrating a bulk of their forces on the fronts, with Australia deploying some forces to India and Thailand to relieve battered Indian forces. Papua New Guinea, being caught in the crossfire would join the war against Indonesia, waging guerilla styled wars in West Papua with ethnic conflicts. The Pacific Island nations of Guam, Samoa, Palau, Kiribati and Tuvalu would only join out of fear of Chinese aggression. Fiji, while it had sided with China in the beginning years of the war, would later defect to the Second Entente after seeing that the defeat of the PRC was inevitable, and in an act of defiance would hand over Chinese ships in their harbor to the Entente, and declare war against China and their allies.
Africa[]
Despite Africa not seeing the most combat on the front, it saw some of the most gruesome of the fighting with widespread diseases, famines, ecological crises and mass famines that plagued much of the continent due to the blockades from Europe and even the weapons deployed by the countries in the war. Morocco was one of the first to join the war, mainly with their historical tensions with Western Sahara and Algeria, with Moroccan claims on Algerian territory and their claims on annexing Western Sahara. Morocco's declaration of war siding with the Allies gave the British territory of Gibraltar more stable protection and the entrance of the Mediterranean for Allied ships. Morocco would engage Algeria in their rivalry, mainly aimed at attempting to exhaust them enough for Allied attacks to Algiers, but because of the terrain of their border, rather being mountainous and with both Morocco and Algeria supporting modern equipment for their armies, both would be engaged in a Iran-Iraq War styled warfare with the trench warfare and even the use of chemical weapons with Algeria using Russian made Iskander ICBM systems they purchased, to launch attacks against Moroccan cities like Rabat, Fez and Casablanca.
Moroccan and US troops partaking in military drills
Tunisia would allow NATO forces from Britain, France, Italy and Spain to deploy on their soil, but Tunisia would only engage Algeria out of fear of being invaded, while the forward deployed NATO forces would support the Tripoli Government in Libya and to a lesser extent, assist Tunisia and Morocco n their guerilla-styled war against Algeria. Egypt played a major role in the African front due to its strategical position with the Suez Canal and Sinai Peninsula, connecting Africa and Asia, and allowed for allied ships to pass through safely and deployed troops into SMP allied Sudan, invading the country and Ethiopia, mainly with their tensions with Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam on the Nile River which acted as a possible spark of the war. Egypt would eventually emerge victorious with the war against Ethiopia and Sudan and having the Renaissance Dam terminated. Despite Egypt's position in the allies, they allowed fighters from Haftar's Army to seek asylum in their country, hiding their tanks, airplanes and other equipment in bases and airports until the war's end.
Chad only joined the war out of fear of Algerian aggression for hosting mainly French soldiers, and was forced into war with Chad playing a major role for the war, and like Egypt, it allowed Haftar's fighters to seek asylum in the country until the war ended, despite pressure from Europe to expel and extradite them. Mauritania joined the war to support Morocco's war against Western Sahara deploying forces of their own into the autonomous republic's territory and encircling many of their forces, and in return, Mauritania and Chad would receive food from the allies to alleviate their famine crises. South Sudan would join the war due to Sudan's invasion and with Ethiopia also taking an SMP stance, putting the country in a grave state of danger as well as a string of historical tensions and violence.
Ugandan troops marching for Juba
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi also found themselves caught in the crossfire and joined the war with their ties with the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations. As members of the East African Federation alliance, would begin active cooperation to prevent themselves from being invaded. They deployed forces to South Sudan's capital of Juba to prepare for a final stand against the Sudanese-Ethiopian offensive. But due to Sudanese supported guerillas on the Ugandan-South Sudanese border, their defense of Juba was hammered.
The DR Congo, caught in a state of turmoil in the east as well as trying to democratize under Felix Tshisekedi joined the Allies, breaking the chains of alleged Wagner Group influence within the country, and sent reinforcements to the 3 nations and took their own interests in crushing rebellions on their border of Uganda and the province of Goma.
Congolese patrol in Goma
Tanzania would join the allies with their close ties with both the DR Congo and Uganda as well as the country's own ties with the UK and Commonwealth of Nations. Despite having heavy ties with BRICS, South Africa, still in a state of internal discontent broke the BRICS alliance and joined the Allies but despite the major role it played in the war, its political divisions, constant and extreme loadshedding and even alleged shipments of munitions to SMP states outside of Africa called South Africa's war effort into question. Namibia and Botswana were pressured by South Africa, Tanzania and the DRC to open fronts in Angola and Zimbabwe and join the allies. Malawi would only team up with the allies out of fear of being impaled by the Mozambican invasion but once dealt with, it would go back into a neutral stance. Nigeria would join the Allies activating their military and wing of the West African alliance of ECOWAS, thus having Ghana, Cote d'Ivorie, Senegal, Liberia and the other members join the war as a result of tension from the suspended ECOWAS members of Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, although ECOWAS members, Gambia, Cabo Verde and Sierra Leone took more passive approaches for the war until being invaded by a joint Guinean and Malian force.
In support of their allies, Kenya, Cameroon, Djibouti and Congo Brazzaville joined the allies out of protection and with political ties with nations such as Great Britain, but Congo Brazzaville's role was more focused on the protection of its own borders as they never attacked Angola and only repelled attacks from the CAR, while allowing soldiers from Angola to seek refuge until the war was over and the tensions with the DR Congo still remained high. Cameroon only teamed up with the allies to assist Nigeria in quelling rebellions on the coastline of both their borders and apart from one battlegroup sent to help Chadian forces, Cameroon didn't play a heavy role like the others. The African theatre of World War III, while not seeing the most action, saw the most environmental destruction and unconventional means of fighting as many people died from chemical weapons and if not, then they would die from the famine, diseases and massacres from both sides of the conflict but also strengthened Africa's political power in areas of the world, especially with the Western Powers.
South America[]
Unlike Africa, South America as a continent, saw the least amount of combat during the war and was the last continent to get entangled in the fighting. The nations of South America would go to war over the main cause of Nicolas Maduro's aggressive stance against the other South American nations and with their strengthened relations with Cuba. Both would wage what would seem like an unwinnable war once the United States would get involved.
The Brazilian Armed Forces (Forças Armadas Brasileiras)boasts the strongest army in South America, ranked 12 in the world.
Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador were the first Latin American nations to join the war with the intentions on preventing any further spread of SMP ideals and preventing the spread of Maduro's influence on South America. Taking it a step further, Brazil also had the intentions of preventing the spread of Venezuelan refugees into their country and hoping to establish its own hegemonial dominance in South America both economically and politically and had begun extensive cooperation with the United States in the South American front. Peru, Argentina, Chile, Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay and Panama would join the allies with the main reason with them all being members of the Organization of American States. Paraguay would join the Allies out of fear of being invaded by Bolivia once it joined the Shanghai-Moscow Pact. For similar reasons, Guyana and Suriname would join out of fear and protection once Venezuela's aggressive stance began rising.
The Caribbean and Central American nations of El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica and Bahamas would join the allies with the main reason being for economical benefits and for protection against SMP aligned nations and were the last ones to join the Allies.
Shanghai-Moscow Pact[]
The Shanghai-Moscow Pact were considered by many as the Axis of World War II and was led by the joint Sino-Russo Expansionist alliance and included North Korea, Islamist Iran, Pakistan, Venezuela and other countries in Africa, Asia and to a lesser extent, in Central America and Europe on their side. Ultimately having authoritarian regimes such as those from Sudan and Ethiopia and the last communist regimes such as Laos and Cuba. They were unofficially led by Vladimir Putin in the African and European fronts and Xi Jinping in the Asian Front, Hassan Rouhani in the Middle East and to a lesser extent, with Erdogan in the Levant and Balkans, and Maduro in South America who would fight until the war's conclusion.
Eurasia[]
Asia[]
Display of Chinese nuclear ICBMs displayed on their military parade. The People's Liberation Army (中国人民解放军) boasted the 3rd strongest army in the world, behind Russia and the US.
The main leaders of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact were the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation led by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin respectively in which pushed for both nations to be the great superpowers in their fight against America and make themselves the dominant powers in their respective regions. Both China and Russia ranked with some of the strongest armies in the world and under their reigns, they would begin utilizing their political influence and resources to bring many countries under their influence such as the Belt Road Initiative and the usage of mercenaries to fight wars in Africa.
For China, their main efforts for the war effort relied on economic traps to force countries into their influence and went on aggressive territorial campaigns, mainly in the South China Sea, trying to obtain the Spratly and Parcel Islands and mainly contested with ASEAN nation claims on the islands. China's territorial urges also were with areas along the Indian border and the annexation of Hong Kong and Macau. Along with Russia, China spearheaded their efforts against the Allies with the formation of the alliance as a counterweight to NATO, and China's main military efforts would be focused on Korea, the South China Sea, India, Korea and supporting Pakistan and the Middle East and Europe to a lesser extent. It was also responsible for the many war crimes that occurred during the war with the majority of them being along the Southeast Asian fronts.
It managed to make significant foothold on allied countries in the beginning stages of the war but as it kept going on, China's logistical struggles began catching up with the PLA and after many years of attempting to resist Allied counterattacks, their lines gave way and managed to force the Allies into Chinese homeland territory. This would lead to civil unrest in China and finally have the people rebel against the CCP after many years of successful oppression. The mounting pressure would then force China into capitulation with Xi Jinping and many of his associates being extracted from hiding and put on trials, ending the CCP's rule in China, but a weak provisional government that would cause the Second Chinese Civil War.
North Korea, led by the Kim Regime was the first ally of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact, mainly with severe tensions with their southern neighbors, that being South Korea, Japan and the United States over the nuclear program and extensive dreams of reunification as well as the threat of destructing America for multiple times. Even with the Singapore Summit of 2018, the tensions, although somewhat eased, it wasn't enough to prevent the rise of even more with the US and the "Hermit Kingdom" and even with the Hanoi Summit of 2019, the de-nuclearization of North Korea was impossible. The unresolved tensions would finally boil over during the 2nd Russian Invasion of Ukraine when North Korea took the opportunity to launch an invasion of South Korea, but unlike the previous years where South Korea would require US assistance, North Korea's offensive to Seoul was immediately halted the moment they touched the capital city as South Korea began massive counterattacks, pushing the North Koreans back from cities like Daegu. It was only able to hold the lines after the Allied counterattacks from reaching Kilju and Pyongyang mainly with Chinese, Mongolian and Russian support. North Korea would resort to the deployment of their nuclear arsenal against the Allied Powers but in a change of events, China and Russia, not wanting retaliation abandoned the Kim Regime and after Kim Jong Un went into hiding, his sister, Kim Yo-jong would attempt to rally the remaining North Korean soldiers for a final stand against the allies but at that point, North Korea was done for and resulted in the surrender of the regime and the reunification of Korea.
North Korean tanks on military parade
Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, under intense pressure joined China's side in the war, allowing Chinese troops to be deployed on their soil for attacks on Entente allied-countries. Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia played a larger role in this part, also attacking Allied countries such as India, Vietnam and Thailand but under intense frontline pressure, they would be obliterated from ASEAN, US and ANZAC support. Myanmar also had to contest with the ongoing guerilla resistance in the jungles and requested that China also attempt to police the areas of insurgency activity. Aung San Suu Kyi would flee to Singapore, and launch an overseas guerilla resistance campaign against the authoritarian government in hopes of restoring democracy to Myanmar, in coordination with the CIA and the local resistance groups. Once the tide of the war turned against them, they would surrender and some like Nepal would enter a neutral stance but allow for Entente troops to shift into Tibet.
Pakistan, being a traditional ally of China joined the war effort and opened up a front against India, but because of India's superior army, Pakistan was forced to call upon Chinese assistance to prevent India from marching into Islamabad. Pakistan would resort to its nuclear arsenal against India after North Korea, but in response for the usage of its nuclear missiles, to prevent being targeted by US nukes, China reluctantly pulled out of Pakistan and was forced by the Indians to sign a peace treaty, putting Pakistan out of the war. Mongolia was forced into joining the SMP to prevent being militarily occupied and contributed their forces to the European and Korean fronts and seeing the inevitable downfall of Russia and China, would leave the war and bring their troops home.
Europe[]
Under the leadership of Putin, Russia after withdrawing from Ukraine would vow to seek revenge, forming the alliance with China and going under rapid re-militarization of its army, rebuilding what they lost. Russia was a struggling nation after the fall of the USSR and the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis and under Putin's remilitarization, Russia began to struggle. During their remilitarization, the Russian Armed Forces would see combat in Georgia and Ukraine in 208 and 2022. Their war effort would further but slowly destabilize the country and managed to intensify Russia's position as an aggressor state under US-allied efforts.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who many called, The Hitler of World War 3.
Russia would also infiltrate the unity of NATO and the EU during the war with the exploitation their connections with Viktor Orban of Hungary and multiple right-wing political parties, notably the German Alternative for Deutschland, Italian Lega Party and the Bulgarian Attack Party and used their ties to Russia extensively to sabotage the Allied war effort in Europe and give Putin and his allies room to breath. Because of the huge gaps, Russia managed to gain ground in areas of Europe in the fog of confusion the parties manufactured but even with some of their offensives, Russian efforts mainly stopped after the Battle of Warsaw where NATO would reorganize and begin a slow counteroffensive against Putin's troops. Slowly, Russia began to lose the war effort and saw themselves obliterated battle after battle, even losing Kaliningrad in the fight and with the logistical and resource problems, this would even allow NATO bombers to bomb cities in northern Russia, notably Murmansk. Once the frontlines overran Minsk and Sevastopol, Russia would beg for an armistice to end the war. Russia would emerge as one of the main aggressors of World War III, and Putin would be extradited and sentenced to home arrest, being forced to repay the allies and free all prisoners, notably Alexei Navalny.
Belarus, being a member of the CIS and CSTO as well as having strong ties with Russia after the dissolution of the USSR despite much of the population being heavily skeptical of Russia and Belarus' relationship, nevertheless they joined to prevent being annexed by Russia. Belarus played a strategical part for Russia during the war, deploying troops of their own to attack Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland assisting in Russia's attacks. Belarus would also construct bases for not just Russia but its other allies of the Central Asian states and even China and to a lesser extent Mongolia for forward deployments. Serbia, being a traditional Russian ally joined the war on behalf of Putin and mainly with its historical animosity with NATO during the Yugoslav Wars near the end of the 20th Century and that a majority of NATO members recognize Kosovo. Armenia would join the Shanghai-Moscow Pact due to its membership with the CSTO but was heavily reluctant on joining, which would lead to deadly clashes in the Caucasus Mountains between Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Despite siding with the allies at first, once Turkey betrayed the Allies, Azerbaijan, still occupying portions of Armenian territory would deploy their own troops to support SMP forces elsewhere and with forced Armenian conscripts. Azerbaijan and Armenia would be the only nations in the SMP to escape the war without trials but Azerbaijan would be attacked by troops from mainland Europe occupying Turkey, Armenian diaspora militants and even volunteers from Russia, Georgia and some of the Arab nations that participated in the Turkish invasion returning Azerbaijan and Armenia to pre-war borders and with troops from multiple countries establishing a demilitarized zone between their borders.
Troops from each CSTO country prepare for military drills
The Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were heavily reluctant in joining the war but were forced in joining to prevent being annexed by Russia or China, and all would deploy troops to the Middle East and European fronts, and allow Chinese and Russian forces to construct bases on their soil. Kazakhstan, being a founding member of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact was forced to give in almost immediately and even when Russia and its allies did lose the war in Europe, Putin enjoyed right-wing support from inside European countries and in Russia's defeat, Putin would be able to finally shatter NATO's unity in the post-war aftermath.
Middle East[]
Iran was the de-facto leader of the Middle East war effort for the Shanghai-Moscow Pact, and the main driving force in a proxy conflict against Saudi Arabia for religious dominance within the Middle East, engaging in proxy warfare with conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Iran also faced numerous raids from the Israeli Air Force as Israel sought to destroy much of Iran's nuclear program as Iran refuses to recognize Israel as a legitimate nation. Another reason for such high tensions is with the United States constantly backing Saudi Arabia and Israel as America after seeing that Iran's development of nuclear weapons was imminent, it began pouring immense funding and weapons for Saudi Arabia, the GCC, Saudi-allied militias and Israel in attempts of containing Iranian ambitions in the Middle East. Even when Iran had negotiated a deal to cease the nuclear program, in turn for lifting the sanctions, the deal would be abandoned by the US and only gave an increase of tensions with the Islamic Republic and the US. The tension would only get worse as Iran would begin harassing ships that came through the Strait of Hormuz to pressure America to release the sanctions.
Iran during the war was one of the founding members of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact and hosted bases for Chinese and Russian forces, while also serving as a supply route for weapons going to conflict hotspots around the Middle East and to a lesser extent, in East Africa. Iran would deploy troops to Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities in the wake of the war. Iran would also deploy their own troops to Syria to support Bashar's forces. Due to the combined GCC, UK, US, French and Israeli offensives, including militia resistance in Lebanon, Yemen and within their own people, Iran would be put on a fighting retreat all the way towards Tehran, and the regime would ultimately collapse and lose swaths of land to both Kurdistan and Baluchistan. The terms of the Dubai-Tehran Accord would have a provisional government installed replacing the authoritarian regime until a stable government could be put in power, and the nuclear program was terminated.
Syria was another player in the Middle East front but served rather as the battleground between rebels, Kurdish fighters, Turkey, SMP and Allied troops all over the country. Bashar's government with support from Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, they would clash with Allied forces and FSA, but even clash on occasion with Turkish and Kurdish battlegroups along the Euphrates River and border. Bashar's forces in desperation would once again resort to usage of chemical weapons against Allied troops and indiscriminately used them on refugees fleeing the country as a terror weapon. This would spark the chemical arms race similar to that of World War I as both sides desperately began the mass manufacturing of chemical weapons for frontline dominance, but would cause more harm than good. In the midst of Turkey's betrayal to NATO, Assad's forces were caught between Allied forces pursuing them on all fronts and with other remnants unofficially coordinating attacks on the Kurdish Rojava fighters with Turkey.
Entrenched Syrian soldier in a gas mask during a gas attack
Assad's loyalists would flee into Iraq amidst the rest of Syria falling into Allied hands. A power gap would fill Syria in the wake of the end of the war and a pro-Turkish government composed of FSA fighters that were under Turkish influence would take power of Syria, while democratizing, its ultimate flaw was with Turkey's new government controlling the government. Iraq was forced into the SMP's side of the war due to the heavy influence that Iran had on the country as well as the Shia dominated population controlled Iraq's influence in the war. Iraq would besiege the Allied bases planted in the country before the war and take many Americans as POWs to be exploited for propaganda by the SMP. Iraq would be liberated from SMP control but in the post war order, it would become another state under the new Turkish influence.
Protests in West Bank before the war
The Palestinian Territories joined the war on the side of the SMP after Iran began backing the Hamas, Palestine began its pledge of allegiance to Iran, leading to violent confrontations with Palestine and Israel. The Palestinian extremists from Hamas and many Jihads would launch suicidal attacks on Israel with the rocket attacks and suicide bombings in many cities. The civilians of Palestine would be met with Israeli carpet bombings and heavy air strikes that leveled many of their towns to rubble and Palestine would be subsequently occupied by Israel, but under intense pressure from the Arab States and even European nations and the US, Israel was forced to abandon their holdings and Palestine would be restored, and to prevent more confrontations, DMZs were set up with troops from Europe and Arab nations on the borders of Israel and Palestine. Palestine would also find itself a seat in the new International Peace Enterprise.
Africa[]
Countries from Africa that sided with the SMP would play a role in the war that can only be described as an effortless war against humanity as the tactics employed would leave many countries left in ruin, economic stagnation and widespread environmental devastation left in their homelands. Nevertheless, China and Russia invested heavily in Africa with the use of mercenaries and economic polices that managed to land several countries in the SMP's ranks. With these methods, the Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Ethiopia and Angola were the first to join the Shanghai-Moscow Pact, launching attacks on Allied countries, sending resources to other SMP countries and conducting guerilla sabotage to weaken the US' war effort in Africa.
Xi Jinping meets with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia
Due to these tactics and the influence around them, more African countries would soon get involved siding with Russia and China in the war hoping for economic benefits with them being Mozambique, Niger, Mali, Madagascar, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. Countries like Somalia would be violently occupied by Ethiopian forces in the early stages of the African theatre and a puppet government would be established to cement Ethiopia's rule. Algeria joined the war with their main effort against Morocco but would end up in a World War 1 styled trench warfare due to rugged terrain on their borders. Western Sahara would also join the war effort against the Allies using Morocco's focus on Algeria as a distraction to launch uprisings and attacks on the African monarch. Eritrea joined the Shanghai-Moscow Pact due to converging interests with Ethiopia against Tigrayan rebels on their border. Congo Brazzaville, while being it had sided with the Second Entente their government never collaborated with the other Entente-aligned governments in Africa, due to ongoing tensions with the DR Congo and sought interests in protecting it's borders from the corrosive insurgents in the CAR and allowed for Angolan troops to stay in their territory until the war ended, thus putting Congo Brazzaville on both sides of the war. Because of the dense populations in African countries, Thus, the civilians were used as meat shields to slow down the advance of the Allies with the heavy usage of chemical and biological weapons and the poisoning of the Blue Nile, Senegal, Niger and Limpopo Rivers only creating ecological devastation and a widespread increase in well known diseases. Madagascar, Sudan and Ethiopia specifically began taking the corpses of civilians that died of chemical warfare and using trucks and planes, scattered the corpses all over rivers and anything worth strategical value and while slowing the Allies down, only created a bigger outbreak of diseases such as Ebola. Zambia was found to be one of the suppliers of the chemical weapons utilizing their resources and with Chinese built factories to assemble and distribute the weapons with many being found in neighboring Zimbabwe, Angola and in West African nations of Togo, Benin, Western Sahara and Guinea. Ethiopian weapons were found scattered in North Africa in Algeria and Sudan. This would lead to Russia and China distancing themselves from their African allies that now went rogue.
South America[]
The South American war effort was spearheaded by Venezuela with their main aim of expanding Maduro's influence all over the surrounding continent. The regimes of Cuba, Bolivia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Nicaragua assisted in Venezuela's effort.
Cuban soldiers parading for display of force
Venezuela's reasoning for joining the war was mainly due to its economy on the brink of collapse due to the hyperinflation caused by intense US sanctions. It also engaged the US in high tensions after a coup against Maduro was suspected of US involvement. With the countries of Nicaragua and Cuba as their closest allies, they launched raids against international shipping within the Caribbean and near the Panama Canal, boarding and taking ships to their ports to compensate for economical damage. Once the US, Brazil and Mexico declared war, the "South American Axis" would begin their attacks seizing the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Jamaica, Grenada, Barbados and the overseas islands of France, Netherlands, UK and the US, including attacks on Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic and supplying the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels in Mexico. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and St. Kitts and Nevis would allow for aircraft of the Venezuelan Air Force and Russian bombers to conduct air raids against their targets including hit-and-run bombing raids on Miami and Key West, Florida. In the midst of the Venezuelan attacks, Bolivia joined the SMP to support their allies and forced the rest of the continent into the war.
Participants on both sides[]
Some countries took not 1 side in the conflict and entered on the other side when they saw their big alliance begin to falter, 4 nations looked at the other side for support and eventual confrontations. The 4 Horsemen of Traitors was a name given to 4 countries that specifically sided with both alliances during the war to find a form of benefit once the war would be over. 1 of the 4 would have their fate sealed, while 2 of the 4 would be forced into joining 1 side specifically and 1 that would leave unscathed but scarred in the aftermath. Some countries in the Allies had political parties that infiltrated their ranks and collaborated with the enemy to give their own country a significant benefit by any means necessary.
Countries that fought on both sides[]
Turkey, Indonesia, Qatar and Azerbaijan are considered the "4 Horsemen of WW3's Traitors" as they fought on both sides of the conflict siding with both the Allies and the Shanghai-Moscow Pact in order to obtain benefits for their country either economical, political or military gains. Turkey demanded more power within the Levant and Mediterranean to contain Kurdish and Greek influence, Qatar intervened to keep its borders safe, Indonesia joined out of absolute anger with the situations in Papua and Timor and Azerbaijan joined on their behalf of Turkey and to contain Armenian aggression.
Turkey[]
Turkey under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his associates turned Turkey into a rather authoritarian nation and despite its strategic importance within the NATO alliance, Turkey pursued rather different objectives even before the war had began. With Erdogan in control, Turkey began launching wars against their Kurdish ethnic groups within their borders east of Ankara and with multiple operations against both Peshmerga and Rojava along north Syria and Iraq, attempting to contain Kurdish influence within the region. Turkey also attempted to consolidate more power near the Caucasus Mountains with supplying weapons to their ally of Azerbaijan in wars against Armenia as the latter were the 2 predominant Turkic nations west of the Caspian Sea. This would include the sales of Bayraktar TB2 Drones to Azerbaijan in the recent Nagorno-Karabakh War were they would be put to good use against Armenian troops. Turkey has also had an ongoing animosity with Greece over the dispute of reunifying Cyprus and with many islands within the Aegean Sea, as well as religious and ethnic disputes. This has caused multiple times were tensions were high and Greece began tilting to nations such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel who also had similar tensions with Turkey. Turkey also invested their resources in the civil war in Libya, deploying troops on behalf of the Tripoli Government and had taken a strict anti-Gaddafi stance, especially with nations like the UAE.
Erdogan meeting with Vladimir Putin (Right) and Hassan Rouhani (Left) in a conference
During the course of the war, Turkey played a rather interesting role, as many dubbed Turkey's place in World War 3 as "The Inverted Italy" of the war as Turkey had first sided with the Allies before switching to the SMP once its true colors were revealed. Turkey remained rather isolated during the conflict and during the opening stages of the 2nd Russian Invasion of Georgia, Erdogan made secret deals with Putin that Turkey will not interfere in Georgia and would turn back any retreating Georgian civilians or troops, but Turkey would still send lethal aid to Ukraine during the 2nd Russian Invasion, despite Russia's warnings. Turkey also made deals with Iran to not attack their troops but host false flag operations to make it look like that Turkey was with the allies, but were still conducting operations against the Kurdish fighters. Russia and Iran would then give Turkey munitions and other lethal aid behind the Allies' back to fight the Kurds, and eventually turn against NATO.
Turkish soldiers on lookout duty in Northern Iraq
In the midst of Saudi Arabia's invasion of Qatar, the little Gulf nation called for support and Turkey would be the first to come to it's aid, at first condemning Saudi Arabia's invasion of Qatar, and demand all Omani, Emirati and Saudi troops to withdraw from Qatar. When Saudi Arabia refused, Turkey resorted to rather drastic measures sending aircraft to bomb a Saudi position in Allied occupied Syria and even began harassing ship traffic in the Mediterranean, mainly interfering with Greek, Egyptian, Spanish and Albanian ships, and even deploying troops to North Cyprus and beginning aggressive patrols over islands in the Aegean Sea. Turkey would even allow Russian submarines through the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits into the Mediterranean where they would also continue in the harassment of Allied shipping in the war reminiscent of the Battle of the Atlantic in World War 2. When the Kurdish Genocide came to light, the Allies were baffled by Turkey's rouge behavior and its aggressive stance for power consolidation, and decided in expelling Turkey from NATO and declare it an ally of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact and that any ambition done by Erdogan was considered an aggression by Turkey.
Turkish armored cars deployed in rural Libya
Turkey would then integrate remnants of Assad's forces into Turkey's Army as a militia division to fight the oncoming Allied assault waves. Turkey would also begin mobilization in North Cyprus and launch air strikes on Greek islands in the Aegean Sea and launch artillery strikes against Bulgaria and Greece, while simultaneously deporting refugees from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine into their borders. Turkey would also take complete control of the Tripoli Government occupying government buildings in Tripoli itself and deploying their own aircraft. It was inevitable that Turkey would attack NATO. During the NATO counteroffensive against the CSTO, Turkey utilized the opportunity to attack Bulgaria and Greece, landing on Crete and attacking the borders of both countries, as well as sending their mobilized forces into South Cyprus. NATO would have to cancel their offensive and redirect many troops to counter Turkey's invasion. After months of fighting the entrenched Turkish forces, they would break through retaking back Thrace and Bulgaria, while also capturing Istanbul and managing to invade southeast Turkey led by the GCC-Israeli forces.
Turkish soldier patrolling occupied Kurdish community
The Kurds in Turkey predominately led by the PKK would launch uprisings to support the Allies. When they closed in on Ankara, many of Erdogan's associates turned on Erdogan attempting to arrest him, but attempting to flee the city north, in an armored transport, he and some of his loyalists attempted to flee Ankara, but due to a lack of air cover, a bomber took out the transport they were in and Erdogan was burned in the wreck, sealing the fate of his regime. Despite an attempt of democratization of Turkey, it failed as a predominant Turkic-Arab Government took hold, establishing an alliance with Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan under their influence.
Indonesia[]
The country itself was already trying to survive even before the war, and while it had put down the rebels in Aceh, Indonesia was still engaged in open conflict against the rebels in West Papua and with Indonesia in disputes with Malaysia over the Straits of Malacca and maritime borders in the South China Sea. Indonesia has also had paranoias of Australia potentially supporting the rebellions in West Papua as well as potential secessionist movements in West Timor, and with Indonesia's growing ties with China, Indonesia's outcome in the war was highly unforeseeable due to the role it played for both sides of the war as the nation played a strategical importance geographically and politically.
The Tentra Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian Armed Forces) boasts the strongest army in Southeast Asia among the top 16 in the world.
Indonesia would declare neutrality at first in the conflict but was weary of its stance in the war, and after the first maneuvers by Chinese vessels in the South China Sea as well as maneuvers by Entente vessels near the Straits of Malacca and an influx of both Australian and New Zealand ships and Indonesia exploited the influx of armed maritime traffic and accused Australia and Malaysia that the ships were used to drop off weapon shipments for West Papua rebels and incite an armed rebellion and activated the navy to block any more Australian ships, but would effectively be a declaration of war. Indonesian forces would land in West Papua and launch vicious operations against the rebels and use their navy to blockade any ships from entering. Indonesia would also begin a mobilization on East Timor's borders, continuing allegations that the ships would also drop off supplies for Timorese in West and East Timor. Indonesia would even go as far as firing on multiple ships and boarding several. Indonesia would then begin a string of violent naval clashes with Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Australia that would divert elements of the Entente's war effort against Indonesia.
Indonesia would then launch violent invasions of both East Timor and Papua New Guinea and committing atrocities reminiscent of the Santa Cruz Massacre in Dili. Australia would redivert many of their forces to Papua New Guinea and with support from the Malaysian, Indian and US Navies, broke through the Indonesian blockades and launched a surprise amphibious invasion on West Papua, supporting the rebels upon the landing. Australia would lead the counterattack against Indonesia with Malaysian, Indian and Singaporean troops landing in Aceh, inspiring the once put down rebels to rise up once more in what the Aceh rebels called it, "Shining liberation." After Indonesia would become overwhelmed by the massive Allied onslaught, and rapidly approaching Jakarta, Indonesia, not wanting a full occupation would issue a surrender and to prevent full occupation, would divert all military assets against China and issue a declaration of war against China and its allies making it a full Allied nation.
Indonesia would then deploy troops to support the Vietnamese counteroffensives against China and remaining Laotian troops, while also assisting Thailand against the Sino-Burmese onslaught and lead counterattacks into China. Indonesia would also to a lesser extent provide troops to Korea and participate in the Liberation of Taiwan and Hong Kong, taking part in battles such as the Battles of Kowloon, Shenzhen and Naypyidaw. After the war, Indonesia would attempt at improving relations with their neighbors while giving up West Papua to Papua New Guinea, Aceh as an independent state and the rest of Timor to East Timor but because of the damage in the war, Indonesia made agreements with Malaysia and Singapore in dissolving ASEAN.
Qatar[]
The small wealthy Gulf state would only join the war after being pressured by Saudi Arabia in joining the war as during the rest of the conflict, Qatar sat idly by refusing to join the war. After refusing multiple ultimatums from Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi Regime would give the greenlight for an invasion of Qatar composing of Saudi, Omani and Emirati troops. Qatar's inventory in their army would allow themselves to dig defenses in Doha and bog down the Saudi invasion but would also be the cause of Turkey's defection. After the Turkish withdrawal from Qatar and Turkey's true intentions revealed, Saudi Arabia and Qatar would come to a truce but under strict conditions, Qatar would sever all ties with Turkey, renounce all support for the Tripoli Government in Libya and declare war on both Iran and Turkey.
Convoy of Qatari Armored Cars
Qatar reluctantly agreed and sent troops to Iraq to counter remaining resistance while also acting as military police in Baghdad, Basra and provide humanitarian aid for civilians. Qatar would even participate with US and Emirati troops in the amphibious assaults against Qeshm Island and Bandar Abbas. Qatar would then also participate with attacks on Bushehr but would not join the coalition in their push towards Tehran and Ankara and remained on military police duty. Once the war was over, tensions remained high with Saudi Arabia and in the midst of the Saudi Collapse, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Jordan and Kuwait would join in an invasion of Saudi Arabia where Qatari forces fought alongside Indian, French, German and Australian forces. Some Saudi defectors would defect to Qatar's army bringing equipment with them, bolstering Qatar's army and Qatar would leave the war mostly unscathed.
Azerbaijan[]
The Turkic nation played a rather complex role for the war. It first joined the allies to deter Armenian aggression over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region and cooperated with Turkey in capturing Yerevan and even in preventing the Russian invasion from reaching Baku. Azerbaijan however would soon take a turn in siding with the Shanghai-Moscow Pact making a truce with Russia and conscripting Armenians to fight against the Allies. Azerbaijan would simultaneously side with Turkey once the Allies denounced Turkey and removed it from NATO, making peace with Russia and allowing Russian forces to move through to Iran. Azerbaijan itself would deploy their own troops to Tabriz and strengthen the Iranian forces already in the city.
Azerbaijani tanks line up for military drills
Allegations even came through that Azerbaijan was using Armenian prisoners as conscripts, using them as meat shields against heavy Allied weapons, violating Geneva Convention laws. In the fall of Tabriz, Azerbaijan would allow Iranian and Russian elements to fall back to Baku while they would put up a fighting retreat to the Azerbaijani border and allowing Iranian generals to flee to Baku. Azerbaijan would allegedly use their air force as well as the Turkish Bayraktar drones in conducting air strikes against Allied forces occupying Iran. At the end of World War III, while Azerbaijan was the Horseman that escaped, it would not survive the aftermath as Azerbaijan was pressured in giving the location of the Iranian generals that fled to Baku. Azerbaijan refused to give them up and US extradition teams forcefully extracted the Iranian generals, adding levels of tension with the West. Azerbaijan would also face attacks from European countries and troops occupying Turkey. Azerbaijan would also face rebellions from the Armenians in their occupied territory and in the aftermath, Azerbaijan capitulated, leaving Armenia and returning to pre-war borders. Azerbaijan would also face troops on their borders from many countries to set up demilitarized zones to prevent Armenia and Azerbaijan at war.
Right-wing politics and Allied nations[]
France, South Africa, Bulgaria, Italy and Germany all retained a form of right-wing politics even before the war as these parties had made numerous talks with Putin even before the war. These parties were the Alternative for Deutschland of Germany (AFD), Lega Party of Italy, the Bulgarian Attack Party, French Rassemblent National and South African Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, in which all would play parts of espionage, political sabotage and other factors that while gave SMP forces time to gain ground in Europe, also manage to shatter the unity of both the European Union and NATO but in the aftermath, help shape the postwar order.
Viktor Orban during World War III was called into question as many in NATO suspected him as the "Russian Spy" for his actions in Europe.
The AFD, Lega Party and Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging played a major role for the war due to their locations in the Allied nations of Italy, Germany and South Africa an hampering the unity of NATO and the combat effectiveness of EU forces in the war. The AFD exploited this with the Nordstream Pipelines that had been allegedly scuttled by Poland during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and used this to their advantage. Germany would still stay strong in the war but in the aftermath of the war, would demand the rebuilding of the Nordstream Pipeline with the main actors of this from the AFD. The AFD would then take power in Germany after the war, establishing ties with the Visegrad 4 and Spain who lost the Catalonian Independence War creating a bloc that rivaled France. The Italian Lega Party's actions in the war were mainly directed at the Mediterranean Sea with the support of the Tripoli Government in Libya but also involved the deportation of migrants to countries such as Spain, Greece and Croatia during the war. After the war, like Germany, the Lega Party would take control of Italy forming strong links with AFD Germany, Austria, Spain and Visegrad 4 and was one of the founding members of one of the postwar alliances.
The South African neo-Nazi party, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging played a controversial role in the African front of World War III as members from their party in the South African parliament suggested acts that would get their neighbors involved on the side of Russia in the war which did involve the maneuvering of troops through neutral Zimbabwe and Mozambique to get to Allied Kenya and DR Congo. However, in the midst of maneuvering the forces, Mozambique and Zimbabwe demanded that all forces present in their territory depart. Without a response, it was the reason both Mozambique and Zimbabwe declared war. Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging would also act as a place of asylum for Wagner Group mercenaries attempting to flee the fighting and despite multiple attempts from the Allies to extradite the Wagner mercenaries, they ultimately failed.
Hungary's collaboration with the SMP was on a other level as their Prime Minister, Viktor Orban collaborated heavily with Putin in many areas especially during the European Theatre of the war. Hungary's contributions in the war were very little for the majority of the conflict but rather, Viktor Orban and Putin engaged in talks for potential plans that would involve in Hungary turning on the Allies and if successful, Hungary would receive territories of Transylvania, chunks of land on the Ukrainian border, chunks of Slovak territory. When these plans were found out, Hungary denied all allegations and despite Hungary's role during the Russian invasion, Hungary would contribute troops to Bulgaria to repel the Turkish invasions but once the Turkish forces fell back into Istanbul, Hungarian forces wouldn't go further beyond the Bulgarian-Turkish borders. Hungary would play a major role in the post war aftermath, kickstarting a conflict with France that quickly divulged into a 3rd Cold War between France, and Hungary and its right-wing allies.
Non-state combatants, unrecognized countries and mercenaries[]
Apart from the two major alliances that fought each other in World War III, non-state combatants and unrecognized countries and even mercenaries entered the stage of combat hoping to influence the war on their behalf for an outcome that would be beneficial. Most of the groups that attempted to benefit from the war were Islamist and ethnic groups mainly around the Middle East and Africa and the unrecognized countries mainly under Russian influence. Many of the insurgent groups that saw combat were Hezbollah, Houthis, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Azawad Liberation forces, remnants of ISIS, Luhansk and Donetsk rebels, Al-Shabaab, March 23rd Movement, Free Syrian Army among many others would see combat in parts of the war, with some all the way. however, some couldn't last and many groups like the March 23rd Movement, Boko Haram and Hezbollah would be wiped off the face of the earth after the war.
Kurdish soldier aiming an RPG
The Kurdish groups consisting of the PKK, Rojava, Peshmerga, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan mainly engaged in the war due to their war with Erdogan especially after his rise in power and status as a dictator, including wars with Iraq and Syria. At first all Kurdish groups would not side either with the Second Entente or the SMP especially in the opening stages of World War III but would eventually join the Second Entente once Turkey was announced as an SMP ally. Baluchistan would join the allies amongst noticing that Iran and Pakistan were on the retreat, and launched uprisings with CIA and Indian support. Aceh would rise up during the Entente invasion of Indonesia and once war ended, Aceh would become an independent state.
Captured armored vehicles and tanks in a Hezbollah parade
The unrecognized nations of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria an Somaliland also joined the war with the main objectives of gaining a form of international recognition with Somaliland joining the Allies due to the Somalian-Ethiopian offensives into their borders. Somaliland, supported by the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia would land troops on their territory to repel the offensives with the UAE and Egypt being the main contributors to the Horn of African front of World War III. South Ossetia and Abkhazia would launch guerilla warfare against Georgia similar of that in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, and while both unrecognized states enjoyed battlefield dominance against the Georgian forces until the late stages of the European theatre of the war and once Russia left the war, Georgia managed to retake lost territories and reannexing both unrecognized states, ceasing their existence. Transnistria would join the war during the CSTO offensives into Ukraine and during the short-lived offensives into Moldova, Transnistria declared war pouring troops into the Moldovan border supporting the Russian forces, but during the NATO counterattack, Moldovan and Romanian forces blitzed into the rouge state and captured Tiraspol, with Transnistria being occupied for the remainder of the war and put under autonomous territorial administration in the aftermath.
Transnistrian tanks on parade
The main mercenaries in the war for the Entente and the SMP were the Blackwater Academi Mercenaries, Defion Internacional from Peru, Wagner Group and Rapid Support Forces that took part in the war for their respective side attempting to find alternative ways to win the war for their side. The Blackwater group had seen combat in Yemen as the UAE had hired the Academi mercs with nationalities ranging from Colombia and other Latin American countries to assist in the Yemeni Civil War but in the front against Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia hired the rest of the mercs to bolster manpower for Somaliland rebels. Defion Internacional was hired by South Africa and France with the main goals of putting down the Azawad rebels in northern Mali and to put pressure on Angolan troops and in the fighting, Defion Internacional put up atrocious warfare that was still effective in combat. Defion Internacional would soon dissolve after the war.
Mercenaries of Blackwater during posing for photo
The Wagner Group's combat focus was once again fighting in Ukraine, Central African Republic and Libya as their men led by the son of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Pavel Prigozhin would see combat that would render their mark on the battlefield as a fighting force not to be reckoned with. The Wagner Group forces would support Haftar's Army in Libya putting up the deadliest combat against Tripoli's forces before the inevitable collapse of the frontline. When the Tripoli Government's forces began gaining ground, many Wagner forces were transferred to the CAR to fight the Allied offensives or fled to South Africa, in which certain right-wing politics would allow them to seek asylum for the remainder of the war. What was left of the Wagner Group would continue to fight in both the CAR and Ukraine, before another mutiny that would force Russia into a ceasefire. With the mutiny, Wagner forces would depart the CAR to join in Prigozhin's second mutiny. The Rapid Support Forces of Sudan would also support Haftar and the Wagner Group in fighting Tripoli Government's offensives but would be withdrawn back to Sudan during the Egyptian invasions. In spite of the rapid advancement to Khartoum, the Rapid Support Forces would ultimately rebel against Khartoum and announce their withdrawal from the war allowing Khartoum to fall into Allied hands.
Pre-War Tensions[]
2023[]
Russo-Ukrainian Ceasefire[]
Amidst the Spring Counteroffensive in Ukraine and with the Wagner Group now under Pavel Prigozhin after his father's death, Putin and his associates did see that Russia's military efforts became rather stagnant although Putin was refusing such losses, but progress on Zelensky's end was also stagnant as Ukraine's counteroffensive, while mostly successful had mainly landed them fighting endless defenses and making little progress. Despite NATO providing dozens of munitions and weapon systems to Ukraine, several NATO countries had announced that they were running on a shortage of munitions, and that some countries would suspend shipments to Ukraine, and ultimately slow the offensive. Near the end of 2023, both sides, practically exhausted from the months of fighting, would come to sign an armistice. Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden, Andrezj Duda, Olaf Scholz, Alexander Lukashenko, Pavel Prigozhin and Volodymyr Zelensky would sign the Kyiv-Moscow Accords. Terms of the accords are as follows:
- Both sides are to have their pre-war borders reinstated.
- Luhansk and Donetsk will not be integrated into Russia.
- Crimea will stay as Russian territory.
- Ukraine will retain all equipment given to its army by NATO nations.
- Russia is to withdraw immediately amidst the full ratification of the treaty.
- Prisoner exchanges done with both sides as necessary.
- Wagner Group mercenaries are to never be rehired for any regional conflict.
- Russia will pay for damages in all Ukrainian cities accordingly.
- Russia is to withdraw all military assets and cease exercises with Belarus.
- Ukraine will be considered for both positions in the EU and NATO
Despite all sides involved ratifying the treaty, many countries that supported Russia condemned the treaty due to the harsh terms placed on Russia and citing at harsh punishment for Putin with Belarus claiming that it would dehumanize Russia and make it look like a "war pig" with Putin claiming that "It was still a re-Nazification of Ukraine" and how it was a "Remilitarization and enslavement of ethnic Russians within East Ukraine." In response, the leaders of NATO countries, specifically France, the US, UK, Poland and Germany would issue a joint statement claiming that "Russia wants to end democracy and will rebuild their former empires."
Responses to the treaty: Talks of a counter NATO[]
With many pro-western countries recognizing the treaty, Russia and its allies issued joint statements themselves in unrecognizing the treaty and with allegations that they would build a military alliance of their own as an actual counterweight to NATO and it's allies within not just Europe, but the rest of NATO's oversea allies. A fateful emergency meeting was held at the UN deciding on the recognition of the Kyiv-Moscow Accords giving countries the options of "yes" and "no" for the recognition of the treaty. Despite the meeting, Ukraine, dissatisfied with the current statements of the treaty would not be present in the meeting. Countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia would take an abstained from voting stance mainly with their good relations with both Russia and the US and or part of the BRICS alliance.
Map of countries that recognized the Kyiv-Moscow Accords with the following key in the map.
At the end of the meeting, Ukraine would still be part of the UN as a majority of the nations recognized the treaty but at a high margin as many had abstained from voting and members, mainly the CAR, Iraq and Afghanistan not present in the meeting and put Zelensky's government at risk of being unrecognized from the United Nations. In the aftermath of the talk, tensions would resume between NATO and Russia. Russia and their allies would meet on numerous occasions and according to the CIA, these talks were held in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Islamabad, Minsk, Algiers and Astana for the discussions of what would be a military and economic alliance that functioned just like the EU and NATO with a similar military structure and would have a stance similar to Article 5 of NATO. The west feared this as it was essentially talks of a more powerful alliance that would strengthen Russia and China's allies together and would be more powerful economically and militarily, more than Russia's CSTO, BRICS and China's SCO. The inevitable was to come soon.
China Increases Aggression: Asian Antipathy[]
Amidst the talks of the potential Sino-Russo counter NATO, China would take this time in launching aggressive campaign ramming vessels in the South China Sea, mainly small fishing ships with nationalities ranging from Vietnam to the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore and began harassing Taiwanese ships within the Nine-Dash Line including the construction of the artificial islands even with the surrounding of the Spratly and Parcel Islands in the South China Sea. While said nations issued joint condemnation of China's increased aggression in the region but the other ASEAN nations of Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos refused on joining on the condemnation due to both building and full ties with China, and many within ASEAN and outside of the alliance, mainly with India, South Korea and the US considering the decision of expelling Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia specifically from ASEAN.
US and Malaysian officials in a photo commencing joint exercises
In spite of the tensions, the US would take a more active stance in Asia beginning naval exercises within the South China Sea and the US would harden their stance with China and their "Puppets of ASEAN." In the midst of the exercises, North Korea once again resorts with nuclear testing with their missiles now landing miles from the Japanese island of Hokkaido and some even landing near Taiwan. In response, the US would further militarize in South Korea and Japan deploying THAAD systems to Hokkaido, Busan and Nagasaki to deter North Korea's training. Continuing their ambitions, China adds to their Extradition Bill of Hong Kong now emplacing it on Macau, resulting in further strife between the 2 city states only to result in China launching crackdowns on people in both Macau and Hong Kong, leading to thousands of detainees and dozens of arrests.
Adding to the tensions, India and China once again face clashes with their border guards in the disputed region of Kashmir with both sides engaging in melee combat with mainly batons and riot shields. Once the dust settled, 30 Indian soldiers were killed, 25 wounded and dozens with minor injuries, while China suffered 20 killed, 15 wounded but more guards with minor injuries. India alleged that apart from the riot shields and batons, Chinese border guards used sharp sticks, jagged rocks and even rifles in the clashes, yet China denied all allegations.
2023 Niger's Coup: ECOWAS Threatens War[]
On the 26th of July, Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown in Niamey during a coup and Abdourahamne Tchiani replaced his role as leader of Niger and establishing another anti-French African nation in the process, expelling French forces to Chad, the only country in West Africa hosting French troops. Russian flags would fly in the streets of Niamey and suspension of other political parties would be instated in Niger. Bazoum would be placed under house arrest after the coup.
Malian soldiers energizing with their improvised vehicle, in support of the coup
With the coup successful, French influence in Africa was severely weakened as they now lost 3 African nations, with Burkina Faso and Mali being the first two African nations to have French troops leave their soil. France issued condemnation on the coup with the French embassy in Niamey facing multiple attacks. Nigeria, an African economic and military powerhouse in the region would join France in condemnation of the coup, cutting power to their northern neighbor and suspending Niger's membership in the Nigerian-led economic alliance of ECOWAS, with Nigeria and the other ECOWAS members issuing a joint statement that war would happen if Niger wouldn't back down. Mali and Burkina Faso who were also expelled from ECOWAS due to the coup would support Niger's coup leaders and make a counter statement that if ECOWAS invades Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali will retaliate. The UN would later cut contact with Niger's army but still attempt to provide humanitarian aid to the country. Yevgeny Prigozhin condoned on the coup praising the leaders in claiming to fight "Colonization." This also didn't help Nigeria as the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline was to run through Niger to reach Algeria and then Europe, but due to ongoing conflict in the Niger Delta, the prohibitive expense of the project and Niger's new government refusing cooperation, Nigeria's government faced huge problems, to either cancel the entire project, or to force Niger's original government back into power to try and start construction. With the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States as a counterweight to ECOWAS, it looked imminent that war could happen at any given moment.
Horn of Africa: UAE's and Egypt's War[]
Apart from the UAE's attempts of bolstering their efforts in Africa, the Emirati government sought cooperation with Egypt mainly focusing on the Horn of Africa and with both Somalia, and Somaliland and their attempts of containing Islamist and Pirate activity within the Somali coast. The UAE's main goal would be with the fight for Somaliland's independence as well as containing Islamist insurgencies within Somalia due to the Emirati bases in Somalia, aimed at containing Al-Shabaab. Egypt pursued similar goals within the Horn of Africa and in Somaliland but instead of containing Al-Shabaab, it looked towards ways of thwarting Ethiopia's control over the region and looking for opportunities since the Ethiopian Dam began building tensions.
Emirati Humvee disembarks into Socotra Island
The UAE would once again, in coordination with the STC in Yemen would recapture the island of Socotra to establish a base of forward operations for Africa. The Emirati Navy and Egyptian Navy would begin coordination in directing supplies to Somaliland and the Emirati bases in Somalia including military advisors to train the Somaliland rebels against Islamists. Egypt's Navy would also keep watch on ships passing into Somaliland and would take active measures against any insurgents and pirates much to Saudi Arabia's ignorance. The UAE and Egypt would continue coordination that would gradually increase even during the war itself and in containing Islamist activity and Ethiopia's control over the region.
Chisinau and Tbilisi look west: Russia on red alert[]
Near the end of 2023, Georgia and Moldova signed agreements with NATO that they could become future members in the event of complete rearming and remilitarization of Russia taking on an aggressive stance towards the two. Putin condemned the agreements stating that "They were infringing on the country's rights of choices and it was further expansion against their borders." Putin would demand a complete revoking of the agreement but NATO would refuse compliance and would deploy troops to the NATO countries of Romania and Greece, but due to logistical issues, NATO wasn't able to fully complete their military transfers to both nations, while Russia would once again order aggressive aerial patrols over the Georgian-Russian border and the remilitarization of their armed forces, rebuilding their industry and cooperating with China for these remilitarization efforts.
Hamas-Israel War[]
On October 7th, Hamas launched massive waves of attacks on Israel managing to provide a severe blow to Israel, due to the IDF lacking in their intelligence and with Hamas managing to enter Israeli territory from Gaza. In the following weeks, the Israeli forces would push Hamas fighters back into Gaza, and Israel would begin a brutal retaliation to force Hamas into surrender. The US in support for Hamas deployed two carriers to the Mediterranean to support Israel and to scare off any support for Hamas. During Hamas' raid into Israel, they launched a brutal attack on a music concert and managed to take hostages that were held for a long duration of the war, with both sides going back and forth in order to secure a ceasefire that could have the hostages released. Up north, Hezbollah terror cells would launch rocket attacks from the Lebanese-Israeli border. While reasons for Hamas' attack were debated, the main points could've stemmed from the normalization talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel, to the releasing of Palestinian prisoners or if the war was to have Gaza support Hamas, because days before the war, a survey which took place saw many Palestinians in Gaza displeased with Hamas. Following the blockade of Gaza, massive support for the little Palestinian enclave from not just the Arab countries but also in the west soared massively as people took to the streets to protest Israel's blockade, and surprisingly in the US. However, in the US, some of these protests also turned into hate crimes as citizens of Jewish ethnicities or origins were harassed, but also Muslims that lived in the US were also harassed with increased reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia in parts of the US.
The Guyana Situation[]
Following a referendum in Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro passed a bill in Venezuela that would see the country annex 70% of it's neighboring country of Guyana, specifically with the territory of Floria, which makes up 2/3rds of Guyana's territory and is rich in oil and gas deposits. Venezuela would begin mass mobilization of its army and began maneuvering to the Guyana border to cement their claims. Following the mobilization, the US and Guyana agreed to joint drills while Brazil reported about the mass mobilization.
2024[]
Crisis in the Americas: Maduro, Havana and Managua strengthen ties[]
In the fog of confusion, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro took the opportunity on strengthening ties with other countries that shared animosities with the United States and their allies within South and Central America, mainly with Nicaragua and Cuba attempting to incite further chaos and hopefully force America's attention to be diverted to give China and Russia opportunities elsewhere. The CIA and FBI alleged that Maduro and Cuba coordinated with smugglers in Nicaragua to smuggle drugs and firearms through Honduras and Mexico to further incite violence and increase the strength of the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels in Mexico, which would prompt the US in rediverting efforts towards their southern border. This arms deal had seen success and the US was forced on cracking down around Central America and finding ways on stopping the shipments from reaching the border. Railway traffic across the US-Mexican border was suspended for an indefinite amount of time and forcing the railways of BNSF, Union Pacific and Ferromex to halt any rail traffic across the borders. Eventually a bust was successful for the US when intercepting a cargo ship suspected of carrying firearms. The registry of the ship was from Iran with the cargo in question belonging to the Cuban arms industry of Union de Industrias Militares, in which would be carrying locally licensed produced firearms. While the network had been suspended, it had succeeded in causing further bedlam and even spread to Honduras and Guatemala, and forcing Belize and El Salvador to go on red alert.
Renaissance Dam: War of the Nile[]
Egypt and Ethiopia's tensions would finally come to light with Ethiopia alleging that Egypt was using the Somaliland rebels as a distraction for Egypt to launch air raids against the Renaissance Dam. Egypt denied all allegations from Ethiopia but would prepare for any inevitable combat in the event Ethiopia would dare against Egypt. In turn, the Egyptian Air Force would begin harsh air patrols flying around the Red Sea and over the Ethiopian-Eritrean border, which would end up having Eritrea further join Ethiopia's condemnation of Egypt's actions, and forcing both the UAE and Israel to remove their bases. Sudan who also had disputes with Egypt and mainly with the border would side with Ethiopia and to prevent any more Egyptian air patrols, issue no-fly zones around the border and Red Sea, hampering Egypt's ability for patrols.
Egyptian aircraft taking off to perform another patrol
Egypt in retaliation would block Sudanese and Eritrean ships from entering the Suez Canal and force them to take the long way around and if any refused compliance, the Egyptian Navy would board ships, detain the crews and keep the ships in port at Alexandria. Egypt, not content would also use the opportunity to join the UAE's shipment of supplies to Somaliland, sending their own troops to land in Somaliland and help train the militias, with Egypt soon being the first country to recognize Somaliland as a legitimate nation. Egypt would also go as far by sending weapon shipments, ammunition and other aid to the rebels in Tigray further building strife between Egypt and Ethiopia and strengthening converging interests with Eritrea and Ethiopia in containing now supplied Tigrayan rebels. Paralyzed with 2 sides it supported, the UAE was caught in a precarious situation as it had supplied combat drones to fight the Tigrayan rebels and stationing weaponized drones in the Eritrean city of Assab, but on the other hand had supplied and even trained the Somaliland rebels which were now marked as adversaries of Ethiopia. The UAE would have its strings both pulled by Ethiopia and Egypt to try and force the small wealthy Gulf nation on their side.
The Shanghai-Moscow Pact: The nightmare revealed[]
Following the tensions rising in Africa, NATO would soon see the nightmare they thought would come true. On the 25th of March, 2024, Russia and China would go on to form the Shanghai-Moscow Pact as the ultimate counterweight to NATO's supremacy, both acting like an economic and military command structure that almost resembled NATO and even would resemble Article 5 of NATO's command structure. Before the formation of the alliance, China had helped Russia in remilitarizing it's military capabilities drastically constructing factories that seemed like that they could churn the killing machines needed. This also meant that the new T-14 "Armata" Tanks, T90s, T80s and T72s could be mass produced and shipped more efficiently. The members of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact were:
| Founding Member | Member | Applying for membership | Observer state |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | Iran | Kyrgyzstan | Turkmenistan |
| North Korea | Tajikistan | Zimbabwe | |
| Russia | Pakistan | Uzbekistan | |
| Venezuela | Ethiopia | Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | |
| Kazakhstan | Syria | Eritrea | |
| Belarus | Iraq | Congo Brazzaville | |
| Serbia | Cuba | South Africa | |
| Armenia | Nicaragua |
This would cause nations, most notably Saudi Arabia, Israel, Vietnam, India, Colombia, Guyana and South Korea intimidated by the formation of the alliance and called for NATO and their allies for support. In response, NATO would hold various military drills with their allies in the regions of the globe and some like Egypt hosting Exercise Bright Star 24 with mainly the GCC, Mediterranean countries and for the first time, Israel would participate with Middle Eastern countries in military exercises. The arms race would escalate rapidly between the SMP and the west and their allies, hoping on one upping the other.
Official flag of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact
Russia would begin aggressive training exercises along the borders of Ukraine and Georgia while conducting controversial air patrols over the Azov Sea and the Black Sea, and in violation of the treaty, Belarus would once again host bases for Russia and the members of the CSTO, even building a Chinese base in what Alexander Lukashenko claimed that "It would be for training purposes and once training exercises were complete, the bases would be taken down." Even so, members of NATO, mainly the Baltics, Finland, Poland, Germany, France and UK suspected that Belarus would become the forward operating base for all future military operations in the event of World War III. The alliance managed in not just bringing Russia and China's allies closer together, but also brought the many wars such as the Indian-Pakistani Conflicts, Saudi-Iran Cold War, and South China Sea disputes closer with their adversaries and in the terms of manpower, it managed to rack up manpower that almost matched NATO and other countries combined with a total manpower of 9,700,170 with China contributing the majority of the manpower. Kazakhstan would send troops to Russia and Belarus to participate in "military drills" hosted by Russia as well as Belarus. Russia would also deploy soldiers to Armenia and dispatch a naval flotilla to support the Iranian ship in Venezuela. China would also send 2 divisions to Belarus and 3 to the Russo-Ukrainian border to take part in these exercises. Pakistan and Iran would also host drills of their own and even both observer states and states applying for membership, mainly Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan participated in these exercises and were mainly aimed near the Iraqi border. Allegations came in that North Korea was receiving weapon and munition shipments from Russia and China during the exercises and allegations were that the weapon shipments included some of the deadliest Russian and Chinese weapons built, such as the ZTZ Type 99, TOS-1 "Buratino", T-80UM, JF-17, KA-52 "Black Shark" and many more weapons. Further reports came in that Russia was also deploying the Iskander ICBM systems to Belarus and supposedly activating the Baltic Fleet around St. Petersburg. In response to the formation of the Shanghai-Moscow Pact, NATO, the US, GCC, ASEAN, Brazil, South Korea and Japan retaliated by forming the Second Entente, encompassing countries from NATO, EU, the GCC, Israel, Egypt, Taiwan several African and South American countries, ASEAN members, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and India.
Official Flag of the Second Entente
The Second Entente would also have some members allocate several command headquarters for regional command. Several days after the formation of the Second Entente, the US and NATO would enact Able Archer II as a full-scale military training drill with all their allies simulating SMP attacks, reminiscent of Able Archer 83 during the Cold War. Many within the new SMP headquarters in Shanghai were convinced that it was a coverup for a real nuclear attack by the US and their allies and in the military headquarters in Moscow, the generals from Russia and China held an emergency meeting to prepare for a contingency plan against the Second Entente. During this time more Russian troops began rolling for the border of Ukraine and Georgia in mass numbers while intelligence agencies from the US received reports of Chinese mercenaries with armored transports, trucks and allegedly tanks being sent in ships to Africa to train up the armies in African countries. With the buildup in almost all parts of the globe, the US began taking matters into their own hands and began the deployment of their own troops into Europe with many arriving in Germany, Norway, France, United Kingdom and in the Netherlands, while the US sent more divisions to the Philippines, South Korea and Japan while more were deployed to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Annexation of Hong Kong and Macau[]
In the manufactured tensions, China would utilize the chaos to annex the city states of Hong Kong and Macau sending military into Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, with Xi Jinping declaring both Hong Kong and Macau as fully incorporated Chinese cities. The airports in both were shut down and military presence was quickly established in both cities as the Russian mercenary group the Slavonic Corps deployed their own forces on the streets of Sai Kung, Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island whilst China sent security forces into Macau, and using both as forward military bases. Britain and Portugal issued joint condemnation of the annexation and launched sanctions against China. Continuing their military protection plans, China would deploy troops to Pakistan and towards Russia facing Ukraine, sending some of their armored divisions towards Rostov-on Don. Intelligence from the CIA alleged that not only was Russia's weaponry not only rebuilt and back for more, but also looked more advanced with some of the T-90s being equipped with Chinese laser dazzlers to disorient targeting systems. Nevertheless, the Second Entente continued Able Archer II with exercises in Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, South Korea, Japan, Morocco, the Mediterranean Sea, Brazil and in the Atlantic Ocean. Able Archer II would end by early December of 2024 but the tensions are already high enough.
2025: War begins[]
Second Russo-Ukrainian War: Outbreak of World War III[]
Without an official declaration of war, Russian, Belarusian, Chinese, Kazakh and Kyrgyz troops launched violent attacks into Ukraine through the Belarusian border and with support from both Donetsk and Luhansk separatists while conducting ICBM strikes on major Ukrainian cities west of Kyiv. Ukraine was swift to respond with their mobilized army managing to halt the offensive along the Dnieper River, but unlike the previous war, Russia was able to organize better supply lines and their tanks were more effective with breakthroughs. This also meant that much of the equipment NATO sent to Ukraine would either be destroyed or captured by Russia and China for examination. NATO would react swiftly with Polish and Romanian troops being the first to enter Ukraine to assist their forces. Hoping to cut the rest of NATO off, Russia would launch more Iskander strikes on Poland and Romania, prompting them to activate Article 5 of NATO, bringing the rest of the alliance into the war.
Drones capturing destroyed US and German equipment in Ukrainian hands
Belarus with Russian and Kazakh forces would also launch invasions into Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the Russian Air Force bombing Helsinki and launching artillery raids on border units on the Finnish border. In the wake of the offensives, Belarus' air force would utilize their air force and launch indiscriminate bombing raids against the Polish border forces while their own army crossed into Poland with Russian and Chinese air support. The Canadian, British, German and American forces, combined with the battered Baltic forces are forced into withdrawing to final perimeters around Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. By now, much of NATO with the exception of Turkey and Hungary issued declarations of war on the Shanghai-Moscow Pact and their allied states. Russian Arctic units began onslaughts across the Norwegian border, but with limited success while Northern units from Murmansk launched offensives aimed at Helsinki and Lapland.
SMP Blitz: Europe falls into flames[]
With the Russian led offensives underway and catching NATO by surprise, Jens Stoltenberg hastily ordered battlegroups west of Warsaw to move east immediately to reorganize for a counterattack. But due to the ICBM strikes conducted in the early days, it made it difficult to reach the vital areas of Poland on the Vistula River while Romania essentially was the only one fighting with Ukraine in the south, mainly due to Bulgaria's declaration of war with Russia only having Bulgaria's army mobilized for defensive purposes due to pro-Russian sentiment within Bulgaria's politics. Slovakia and Czechia began mobilization as Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and France hurried to rush everything to Poland.
Map of Europe during the early phases of the war. c. 2025
Russia would utilize their fleet of Tu-95 and Tu-160 long-range bomber aircraft to conduct bomber raids west of Kyiv, taking out multiple bridges, railways, crippling roads and airfields and air bases, hampering NATO's ability in sending reinforcements to Ukraine, and effectively cutting off Polish forces already fighting in Ukraine. Chinese forces operating on the flank would then launch beeline offensives surrounding Polish and Ukrainian units Rivne and any Ukrainian/NATO units in Lviv cut off from reinforcing the front. Despite its mobilization incomplete, Slovakia and Czechia hastily sent units forward to Lviv and Poland and would set up defenses along their positions, establishing the "Lviv Resistance Curb." Further south, the Russian Marines and supported by remaining remnants of the Russian Black Sea Navy would bombard Odessa and station ICBM launchers in Sevastopol, to heavily bombard Odessa into ashes, while the Russian marine landing would be stalled, it would divide the Romanian troops to fight else where, giving the SMP attack a flank maneuver opportunity. The Finnish had some success in delaying Russia's invasion but ultimately Helsinki, under a grueling Russian onslaught and ICBM barrage would fall to Russian fighters as the Finnish began a harsh retreat to the Norwegian border due to Sweden's neutrality during the Fall of Helsinki. The NATO divisions in the Baltic states begin their withdrawal from the capitals allowing civilians to evacuate during their defense of the capital cities. The Baltic-NATO units would follow shortly with ships from the Royal Navy and French Navy having the men board ships to bring them to Denmark and Germany for forward deployments to Poland. Spain, Portugal and Italy, despite having passive support for NATO would begin mobilization to forward divisions to Germany as Italian forces deployed through the Mediterranean to assist their Romanian allies.
The fire spreads: Asia Goes to War[]
Taking advantage of the momentum in Europe and the US' current situation with Russia, Xi Jinping exploited the opportunity to continue China's Expansionism beyond their borders, taking disputed territory in the South China Sea, India, Vietnam and annexing Taiwan and integrating it into China. The PLA would then go forth with Operation Dragon's March, beginning with the amphibious and airborne invasion of Taiwan, capturing the beaches and beginning the onslaught to Taipei as Jinping had decided on bringing China back into a superpower state, and brought severe internet restrictions to monitor China's citizens. Continuing the attritions, China would also increase torture and re-education of the Uyghur Muslim group which was rampant even before the war, and increase surveillance on Hong Kong and Macau relying on the Slavonic Corps to police Hong Kong.
PLA Marines landing on Taiwan
Chinese Marines would get a foothold on much of West Taiwan and their overseas islands before storming the mainland and taking Tainan and Hsinchu but failed to link their forces due to the harsh terrain further eastward. Taiwan's Army would exploit China's dilemma and quickly reinforce their army constructing fortifications around the capital city of Taipei and the vital harbor city of Kaohsiung. The US would respond with a declaration of war on China and suspending all trade with China with Joseph Biden declaring mobilization for the inevitable Pacific Theatre of the War. Although China's advance into Taiwan slowed down, they continued with Operation Dragon's March sending troops into Vietnam and assists North Korea in launching their offensive into South Korea, in what many call the beginning of the Second Sino-Vietnamese War and Second Korean War. Vietnam is also flanked by Chinese troops that crossed through Laos and being led by Chinese forces, Laos would hesitantly join the war and join China's invasion of Vietnam. Collaborating with the North Koreans, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un would order North Korean and Chinese forces across the 38th Parallel, declaring war on South Korea with the intent of spearheading the offensive to Seoul and Busan before Japanese and US reinforcements can arrive. The Sino-North Korean blitz into South Korea in the first few hours goes swimmingly but is halted outside of Seoul and Incheon as the US and South Korean forces manage to hold on to the cities despite a successful encirclement. Japan declares war on both China and North Korea and immediately deploys reinforcements to break the encirclement with full air and naval support. Myanmar's authoritarian government meanwhile exiles many democratic political leaders from their country and declares their full support for China, which garners the attention of Thailand and India. China's Navy begins conducting harassment campaigns against other ships in the South China Sea, damaging several and sinking 2. In the wake of this, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei would cut all diplomatic ties and declare war on China, mobilizing to reinforce Vietnam's front which has now entered guerilla warfare to hamper the advance south.
Asian Front at the beginning of 2025
In the wake of the mobilization of the Southeast Asian nations, Australia and New Zealand declare full support for the United States, South Korea and Vietnam and start mobilization and deployment to the battlefronts in Asia. Despite mounting pressure from the rest of the ASEAN nations, Indonesia and Cambodia declared a state of neutrality and refused on sending any troops to the frontlines, although allegations soon sprung from Malaysia and Thailand that Indonesia's neutrality was a phony act as Malaysia further extended their allegations claiming that ships in the Malaccan Strait, mainly with military aid were being harassed by Indonesia's Navy. Noticing much of these events, the US began to question Indonesian loyalty with ASEAN citing at their previous campaigns with East Timor and West Papua and how their navy wasn't assisting the Malayan and Filipino Navies against the Chinese Navy in the South China Sea. America would then begin sending aid to Vietnam and even military advisors to help train the Vietnamese army. During this time, the first of the Malayan, Bruneian and Singaporean forces arrived in Vietnam and with their assistance, slowly began pushing back against the Chinese-Laotian offensive. In swift retaliation, China would place long-range carpet bombers on Hainan Island and begin indiscriminate bombing campaigns against Vietnamese cities, killing several in the southern cities. This was often dubbed, "The Hainan Homicide" by many within the Second Entente and in the bombings, managed to cripple supply lines and delay the arrival of supplies to the frontline. Further west in the Middle East, Iran took the opportunity in launching shock campaigns against US allied states in the Middle East, specifically with drone and ICBM strikes against Israel and Saudi Arabia and US bases in Iraq, leading to numerous oil fields in Saudi Arabia scorched and many US troops lying injured. Israel was mainly unaffected by Iran's shock campaign but retaliated with air strikes on their ally Syria and more air raids on Iranian territory.
Iranian AA systems deployed in Iraq.
Biden and Salman bin Adulaziz condemned the attacks and demanded that Iran cease their campaign. Nevertheless, Iran refused to relent and the Iraqi Government even called for the withdrawal of European and US soldiers on their soil as Iraq was hoping to avoid another conflict. Diplomats from the GCC nations, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, US, France, Russia and China met in Cairo to discuss ways of containing tensions, but all talks came to an abrupt halt when a US diplomat received word that Iran has deployed ground assets into Iraq and Syria, establishing AA zones in Baghdad and began building fortifications along the Tigris and Euphrates River, while sending mechanized and armored columns west of Damascus, Baghdad and Basra. The AA nets in Baghdad then began targeting US aircraft with Iran and Iraq alleging that the US aircraft had violated no-fly zones in Iraq and Iran. Reports then also came in about US and Iraqi aircraft frequently clashing over Iraqi skies. While the missiles did miss their targets, Saudi Arabia, the GCC, US and UK decided to take matters in their own hands as Saudi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, Jordanian and Egyptian forces move towards the Iraqi borders with the US aircraft from air bases in the UAE and Saudi Arabia prepared to launch a Gulf War-styled air campaign. Israel, while not officially part of the alliance mobilized the IDF in the event of a war with Syria. Syria and Iran would then declare war on the GCC, US and Israel bringing the Middle East into the war.
Middle East: Calamity Ensues[]
Days after the declaration of war by Iran and Syria, the Saudi-led coalition would invade Iran allied Syria and Iraq with the main objectives of hoping to obliterate the Iranian bases before their reinforcements can arrive and fortifications can be complete, but in secret, the Saudi Wahhabi Monarchy used this as a cover up for their real plan to conquer the Levant and unite all Sunnis in a united Arabian state, and then turn on their allies. The Middle East would then fall into chaos as the Arab Coalition of Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait clashed with Iranian and Iraqi forces and managed to push forward towards Damascus, and pass Fallujah and Basra but due to the skilled training of Iran's army, the result would see atrocious warfare from both sides.
Fighter jet of the Royal Saudi Air Force taking off to perform an air sortie.
But due to the tackiness of the navies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Iran enjoyed partial naval superiority in the Arabian Gulf and managed to temporarily cut supplies from reaching the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait at the Hormuz Strait and began stationing missiles on Qeshm Island to further intimidate maritime traffic. Even when the US Navy, supported by the Royal Navy and French Navy would break the Iranian stranglehold in the Strait of Hormuz, they would continue to fight with against Iran's navy in the Gulf, with support of the Emirati and Saudi Navies. Iran would also begin their second phase of the shock campaigns launching missiles from Qeshm Island against foreign bases in the Middle East countries, targeting Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Jeddah with Iranian built ships that resembled civilian cruisers and freightliners housed the missiles with the Islamic Republic launching waves of missiles against US assets in Saudi Arabia, striking at unsheltered aircraft during the raids. The Houthi rebels which had been supplied with Iranian missiles and drones would also utilize the opportunity to assist in Iran's strike campaign and further intensified the strikes against Saudi Arabia. In the aftermath of the strikes, much of Saudi Arabia's infrastructure was severely crippled with multiple US jets blown up in the attacks and more oil fields set ablaze while the UAE had been mostly spared, mainly with the emplacement of the US THAAD systems in Abu Dhabi but at the expense of several US jets also damaged.
Jordanian tanks crossing the border of Syria
Israel who had been observing the events with Saudi Arabia and the coalition's success in Iraq and Syria decided now that the time was right and entered Syria through the Golan Heights but despite the initial gains made by the IDF, Israel was met by heavy Syrian resistance in the mountains. In the meantime, Israel entered Hezbollah dominated Lebanon and just like the situation in Syria, faced heavy resistance as the Hezbollah fighters and despite the heavy resistance that the Israelis encountered, unexpectedly, the Saudi-led coalition and Israel would gain favor of Lebanese that rebelled against Hezbollah rule and would side with both Israel and the Second Entente, seeking to rebuild their country and cleanse it of any Iranian influence. In response, the Iranian forces in Syria entered north Lebanon and coordinating with Hezbollah, attempted to terminate the anti-Hezbollah rebellion and launched volleys of missiles into Israel. Although most of the missiles were swatted out of the sky due to the Iron Dome, some of the missile managed to hit their targets in Nablus and Jerusalem which resulted in numerous casualties within the cities. Israel would further extend their participation in the war with air raids on the Iranian bases in Damascus, Homs, Daraa, Baghdad and Al Awja, and even managing to land hits on Iran's nuclear facilities crippling Iran's Nuclear Program much to the praise of the Second Entente and the Arab coalition. But due to the missiles hitting the facilities, fallout spread throughout the rural areas of Iran and an increase in cancer mortality began to rise with winds from sandstorms carrying the radiation into Iraq, Azerbaijan, Caspian Sea and even small areas of Turkey to contract nuclear radiation. With the arrival of US ground forces and even aircraft from the British and French Air Forces, the Arab Coalition began to gain momentum against their adversaries, but Russian forces that were in Syria before the war's beginning would intervene against the US, British and French air forces with constant clashes against each other over Syrian and Lebanese airspace, meanwhile in the Gulf, Iran began deploying sea mines being activated by submarines and surface vessels to slow down American shipment of supplies and US warships from entering the Gulf.
Middle East Front at the beginning of the war. c. 2025Green represents the Kurdish Peshmerga and Rojava.
Despite Turkey's NATO stance in the war, it never contributed to the Arab coalition's gains in Syria and Iraq but sought it's own goals around their borders and to see any Kurdish extremist activity in East Turkey as well as northern Syria and Iraq exterminated, hence why Turkey was one of the two countries that didn't declare war on Russia and retained a neutral stance for both parties, despite it's geographical and political importance in NATO and the Second Entente. Erdogan, the Turkish dictator saw the war as the right opportunity to play both sides in the war and bring Turkey to a state of glory and to prevent a Kurdish independent state form being formed on Turkey's borders. Turkey would then launch multiple air raids against Kurdish forces before sending armored columns into Kurdish territory in North Syria and Iraq with Turkish forces aiming to take Aleppo and Erbil and cleanse their population of alleged Kurdish terrorists to further make their territory safe. The Turkish air and ground attacks resulted in high death tolls for the Kurds and in retaliation, it led to new waves of PKK terror attacks against military and police facilities in Turkey. When reports came in about the Turkish slaughter of the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, they were highly suppressed by Turkish media and Turkish diplomats in NATO as they wanted to paint the picture that Turkey was fighting with the Entente in the Middle East, and while many in the Second Entente fell for the façade, it was clear that they were unaware of Erdogan's secret collaboration with Khomeini and ultimately was forcing Peshmerga, the PKK, YPG and other Kurdish fighters to side with Assad's forces. When Israeli, Jordanian and Saudi forces, supported by reinvigorated Free Syrian Army fighters were reaching the outskirts of Damascus, Iran and Syria resorted to the usage of chemical warfare and constructed fortifications around the outskirts of the city. The bloodshed in the Middle East would also create a severe oil crisis, reminiscent of the 1973 Oil Embargo and many gas stations in the US, India, Pakistan, Japan and China ran dry as prices began to climb higher and higher.
Caucasus Chaos: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia join the fight[]
With much of the Entente's attention directed to the defense of what remained of Ukraine and Poland, Armenia and Russia would unilaterally declare war on the small state of Georgia conducting ICBM strikes on Tbilisi and with Russian VDV and mechanized divisions landing in the country with support form South Ossetia and Abkhazia separatists. Georgia would then declare war on Russia and Armenia, siding with the Entente, but due to their small army size, the Georgian resistance was all but futile as Russian tanks began blitzing into the capital of Georgia. Despite pleas for NATO assistance, Turkey had collaborated with Russia and Turkey's border would not allow any Georgians to flee into Turkey while the Russian Black Sea Fleet would decimate much of Georgia's Navy and the ships that escaped would dock in Bulgaria and Romania for much of the war, giving the Russian Navy an opportunity in shelling Georgian positions.
Soldiers from Artsakh in firing positions.
Armenia would also take the opportunity in taking the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan with support from Artsakh soldiers, which had been supplied by Armenia and would declare war on Azerbaijan. Through intense shelling, Azerbaijani forces unprepared were forced to fall back and Armenia would take Dyudengya and Shahbuz from Azerbaijan and began pushing further north and south to the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhchivan, but due to the lack of fighters in Armenia's inventory, it meant that Azerbaijan's air force with Turkish drones were able to dominate the air against the Armenians but with Armenia's AA stash, it managed to increase the casualties on Azerbaijan although the preemptive Azerbaijani air strikes would also hamper Armenia's anti-air attacks. However, due to the rugged terrain of the Caucasus Mountains, it quickly developed into trench warfare similar to that of the Iran-Iraq War and Ethiopian-Eritrean War as both sides were locked in stalemates and resorted to using their ICBMs to hit strategic targets of the enemy. Attack helicopters would be utilized by both sides to try and make any gains possible, which did favor Armenia in the long run of the trench war. The clashes in the Caucasus would also garner the attention of Turkey who would come to the aid of Azerbaijan with military intervention towards Yerevan. Turkey's superior army and drones would overwhelm Armenia's army as the Turkish and reinvigorated Azeri forces would charge towards Yerevan, much to the anger of Russia as Turkey's collaboration with Russia never mentioned about Armenia and Azerbaijan's inevitable involvement in the war. Iran would support Armenia with drone strikes against Azerbaijan and attacks on the Azeri enclave. This would then have those in the Second Entente assume that Turkey and Azerbaijan were still on their side for the war, still unaware of Turkey's war crimes in the region.
Europe: Kyiv and Warsaw fall: The SMP Onslaught Continues[]
With the fall of the Baltic States and the stagnating NATO counterresponse, Russia and their allies continued their onslaught with the aim to drive westwards towards Bucharest, Warsaw and Berlin in Operation Winter Storm. The CSTO-Sino offensives focused towards the Polish cities on the Vistula River, Lviv, Kyiv and Odessa threatening Romania and Slovakia. The Polish and Slovak forces in Ukraine are caught in a predicament and reluctantly withdraw from Lviv to focus on defending Poland, but not before scuttling several bridges to hamper Russia's advance. Romanian reinforcements in Ukraine are already facing the threat of being cut off as the Romanian-Ukrainian defenses struggle in holding Odessa and what remains of Ukraine east from Poland. Support from German, Canadian, Danish, Czech and redeployed Baltic forces managed to slow down Russia's advance towards west Poland but with NATO aircraft running rampant, Russia utilized their stockpiles of S-400 SAMs to swat aircraft out of the skies to increase Entente casualties, while also playing a defensive air game with their ASF fighters. With NATO aircraft being forced away from essentially no-fly zones in occupied Europe, the SMP mount their offensives and push westward.
Map of Europe during Operation Winter Storm. c. Late 2025
Clashes in the Baltic Sea turned in Russia's favor as the Finnish Navy retreated to Denmark and while the Polish and German Navies clashed with the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet, Russia began to mine the waters in the Baltic Sea to act as a safeguard for supply ships. Entente reinforcements from the UK, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, US, France, Spain, Italy and Czech Republic would be able to arrive into Warsaw before the offensive could be launched, and with US B-52 and B-2 bombers deployed in Berlin, Copenhagen and operating from Ramstein Airbase, would resort to attempts of carpet bombing the SMP formations on the frontline but had to be scaled back due to the complex net of AA defenses in the occupied Baltic states and occupied Ukrainian and Polish territory and resorted to using MQ-9 Reaper Drones to destroy any target on the frontline. Apart from the Central Asian states and Belarus fighting with Russia, China and Russia also forced conscripts from Mongolia sending an expeditionary force of 15,000 to be deployed to the European front, while Russia and China also began mobilization of their population. SMP forces would later begin gaining Polish towns and areas that were just outside of Warsaw, taking Pulway and Radom and were closing in on Warsaw. Because of the harassment of the Entente supply lines, NATO command resorted to constructing defenses along the outskirts of the city and taking positions along the city to halt their advance elsewhere, and with US long-range Patriot SAM systems installed in the city and surrounding towns, it led to some of the harshest aerial dogfights in the sky since the Battle of Britain. This would also see the capabilities of the US F-22 and F-35 tested against Russian Su-33 and other high-tier aircraft.
Belarusian soldier departing from a helicopter.
In Scandinavia, despite fierce resistance from Finnish forces, intense Russian air raids and shelling managed to undo the Finnish landscapes to nothing but ashes as Finnish forces resorted to ambush tactics to hold on, but with their natural barrier decimated, Finland was forced into giving up Helsinki and retreated north to Lapland where they could rejoin with Norwegian forces. Much to the dismay of the Finnish, Russia had begun intense shelling and launched offensives towards the Norwegian city of Kirkenes with their Arctic divisions, forcing the Finns to retreat to Sweden, which had joined the Entente and were allowing Norwegian, British and Canadian units along with theirs to save what remained of Finland. The Finnish Government would flee towards Oslo as a government in exile as Russian military police units were deployed to the capital. Half of the Canadian, British and Norwegian reinforcements had to be redirected to protect northern Norway from being decimated by Russian Arctic attacks and the Scandinavian front would fall into a stalemate with trench warfare becoming the order of battle in Lapland and northern Norway. Despite the fierce resistance of the Ukrainian, remaining Polish and Slovak, Romanian and newly deployed Montenegrin troops, the SMP would force defeat after defeat upon Entente troops in Ukraine, forcing a final stand at Kyiv as the Ukrainians had retreated from Odessa. Weeks of brutal fighting endured as the defense of Kyiv turned into grueling trench warfare and indiscriminate bombing by the Russian Air Force. By December 20th of 2025, the Entente armies and Ukrainian forces would call a retreat from Kyiv and the city would finally fall into SMP hands. Zelensky who survived the battle and was retreating with the forces proclaimed that Ukraine will never surrender and they would fight on even in occupation. The defeats in Odessa, Lviv and Kyiv also managed to create severe refugee waves that slowed down the Entente's retreat to Romania as the refugees fled into Moldova and Romania. The Donbass Rebels and Russia would be the first troops to march into Kyiv announcing a total victory in the "Denazification of Ukraine" and the Donetsk and Luhansk states would not only be independent, but also have Donbass and pro-Russian Ukrainians govern occupied Ukraine. The governing of Puppet Ukraine was deemed a difficult task as fierce protests broke out in the cities of Kyiv, Odessa, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Poltava and Zaporizhzhia against the puppet governments and in response, Russian occupation units would retaliate with tear gas and even resorted to shooting several protesters. This also led to partisan resistance in many parts of Ukraine as many civilians had access to black market firearms leading to Puppet Ukraine becoming a state of civil unrest. The retreat of the Entente and Ukrainian forces would turn into a grueling fighting retreat as pro-Russian partisans and Russian aircraft began sporadic and rampant attacks on the convoys escaping to Romania. After many months of fighting, several days after Christmas, Warsaw would fall to the SMP, but a pyrrhic victory for the SMP, mainly with reorganized NATO defenses that bent the armored columns charging into the city.
USAF F-22 Raptors flying over the Hel Peninsula.
The defeats in Kyiv and Warsaw and the stalemates in Lapland and Kirkenes meant that to the Entente, the war wasn't going to stop any time soon and the rest of the NATO countries and Sweden with the exception of Hungary ordered general mobilization of their population, but with Germany's mobilization, it was more reluctant for mobilization due to the Bundeswehr suffering from poor financing and mismanagement and heavy anti-war status with it's population not to mention that pro-Russian political parties in Germany, notably the Alternative for Deutschland had strong ties with Putin. Despite the first of the Bundeswehr units being deployed in Poland, their combat was to be questioned due to situations in Berlin prior to the war. In the wake of the general mobilization, NATO command began drawing up plans for counterattacks against Russia and their allies, aiming at decimating the Black Sea Fleet and storming the enclave of Kaliningrad. Russia and the SMP also began planning for further offensives adding to Operation Winter Storm II as Russia and China prepared their armored divisions with the T-14 Armata and ZTZ-99 tanks and arming Tu-160 squadrons in occupied Poland against Entente forces. Some of the Central Asian and Mongolian forces would stay put for military policing duties in the occupied Warsaw and Ukraine as some Chinese and Russian generals deemed them too weak to stand on their own. Reluctantly, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia would comply and have military police bases in Kyiv, Lublin, Lviv and Odessa. Meanwhile, the UN was in crisis as many ambassadors from neutral countries, mainly Ireland, Switzerland and other nations would try and find political solutions to the ongoing fighting, many countries had deemed the attempts of peace being made were already too little too late and some even began withdrawing from the UN, mainly those in the SMP, Second Entente and their allies began withdrawing from the UN. By the end of 2025, those that were still in the UN which consisted of Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Central and South America and even the microstate nations finally decided to withdraw, sealing the fate of the United Nations. But due the withdrawal, many peacekeeping troops were stuck in oversea countries, mainly in Cyprus, the DR Congo, Lebanon, South Sudan, Kosovo, Western Sahara and Mali.
2026[]
Indian Subcontinent: India takes the gauntlet[]
Despite Pakistan not yet joining the war, India was already facing pressure due to China already invading Vietnam and with Myanmar's mobilization and crackdown on many ethnic groups, India was faced with a heightened alert to join the war. Due to the previous clashes with Chinese forces in Kashmir and the border, China and India engaged in multiple fierce standoffs against each other. But India's pressure would finally force India into joining the war as Pakistan, did not declare war on anyone, but hostilities among the Kashmir border increased. Indian forces stationed along the border would receive unprecedented border standoffs and skirmishes with Pakistan along their border and Kashmir. Because of China's focusing of missiles towards the Vietnamese front, it did favor Indian forces once they entered into the Himalayan Mountains to clash with Chinese forces but the harsh terrain and weather made it difficult for Indian forces to maneuver across.
Indian Air Force Helicopters flying to the Himalayas
Because of a small fraction of the highways were available for Indian Army assets, topography of the Himalayas, deadly winter and conditions of the engineering of India's infrastructure, India struggled in maneuvering many of their forces north and the Chinese would wait for them in strangleholds in the mountains and would obliterate convoys with missile strikes and only left portions of commando infantry and even small artillery to brawl against Chinese forces in the mountains. The missile strike and bombardments would even create rockslides and general avalanches that would hamper India's ability to bring reinforcements and supplies which even killed several civilians that were caught in the fray. India in retaliation did manage to perform aerial strikes of their own against Chinese forces entrenched in the mountains but even when the bombs and air-to-surface missiles hit, Chinese SAM systems hidden in the mountains would strike at the aircraft, damaging many and shooting down several. China would utilize airports in Tibet and use them as air and forward operating bases for operations against India stationing long-range SAM systems and advanced fighters, mainly the Chengdu J-20, Shenyang J-16 multirole fighters and Xian H-6 carpet bomber. Because of India's stagnant combat against China, they turned their forces to Pakistani Kashmir and in the first week of fighting Pakistani forces, the casualties were extreme as Kashmir's general topography made it difficult for armored, mechanized and motorized units to cross only leaving airborne and commando units to the fighting. Because of the combat in Kashmir and the Himalayas leading to general Indian losses but no significant territorial gains, both sides sought solutions to compromise their enemy, with India launching missile strikes against Pakistani emplacements in Kashmir and dogfighting raged on in Pakistani and Indian airspace, leading to dogfights with the Indian HAL Tejas fighting the Pakistani-Chinese JF-17 testing their combat capabilities. But due to India's army concentration on the north and west, China and Myanmar cooperated and launched false flag operations to frame India for killing Burmese refugees along the Indian-Burmese border, prompting a Burmese invasion of India from the northeast. China would also pressure the Himalayan nations of Nepal and Bhutan to either join the war or allow Chinese forces to pass through to India. Due to China's influence over Nepal, the nation would oblige, rather reluctantly as Bhutan refused and China would launch surprise invasion to cut off India and link up with Burmese forces.
Indian Subcontinent front when India joined the war. c.2026
Despite the initial surprise attack from the east, India's army did manage in slowing down the Burmese offensive but was forced into sending reinforcements originally destined for the east to save Bhutanese forces which began taking poundings from the Chinese invasion. Continuing their harassment with the Pakistani emplacements, India would use other elements in their air force to launch air strikes against Pakistan and would follow up with a ground invasion of Pakistan, aimed to reach Islamabad and Peshawar. While India began operating on multiple fronts of the war, Pakistan began looking for points in the Indian frontline to be exploited and the rather short-lived answer was the Thar Desert and despite the vastness of the desert, the topography meant that Pakistan's spearhead offensive was short lived and it bogged down but with India already drawn out in multiple theatres of combat, Pakistan exploited this further by using the desert itself as a natural barrier, building bunkers, pillboxes and trenches to force Indian soldiers to draw their fire. But elsewhere for combat, the Indians began pushing on northern Pakistan and would lead to tank clashes on a scale since World War 2 but due to some of the roads being narrow and little available for their troops, India still struggled in sending forces to the frontlines. Pakistan and India also used their navies to clash in the sea but Pakistan's Navy, cooperating with their air force would play a more defensive strategy and put the Indian Navy at bay with modern ASMs. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan would soon send reinforcements to Pakistan and even one division from Kazakhstan was forced to join the Pakistani defense. Due to ties with Pasthuns in Pakistan and general damage by Indian airstrikes in Afghani air space. Afghanistan would opt to help Pakistan in exchange for future investment. They would send over most of their volunteer army, primarily of Pashtuns to aid Pakistan.
Africa: War in the Sahel and Horn[]
As the war waged on in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, it was inevitable that the war would reach Africa. Ethiopian leadership was already reaching a paranoid level due to previous events, mainly the Egyptian and Emirati supply of Somaliland forces and Egyptian aid to the Tigrayan rebels and the rise in prices during the war began to take it's toll on Ethiopia's economy. The government would then concoct multiple plans that could save them if they joined the war from any opportunity they saw, they would act upon. Ethiopia would sign non-aggression deals with their neighbors of Sudan and Eritrea and order the general mobilization of it's population with army units moving suspiciously towards Somalia's border. During the maneuvering of Ethiopia's forces to Somalia, the country announced it's withdrawal from the AMISOM peacekeeping coalition and demand that all other AMISOM countries withdraw immediately. To enforce the claim, Ethiopia conducted false-flag operations to justify their attacks. Without a response from the other nations, on January 26th, Ethiopia launches a surprise takeover and violent occupation of Somalia with a goal to takeover the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopian APC in the Somali countryside.
By February 7th, Ethiopia takes all of Somalia and announces it's control over Somalia's current government. The AMISOM countries were in the process of withdrawing during the Ethiopian invasion but were not quick enough as several Burundian, Kenyan and Ugandan soldiers were killed in the crossfire which prompted all countries in AMISOM to withdraw immediately to avoid getting hit. Ethiopia's control over Somalia's would be enforced as it began constructing bases and fortifications in Mogadishu and began shifting attention towards rebels in Puntland and Islamist insurgencies. Apart from AMISOM's involvement in Somalia, the UAE which owned bases and a civilian built port in Somalia even before the war was now at risk of having them targeted by Ethiopian attacks, and issued condemnation on the aggressive takeover of Somalia. Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda and Burundi also issued joint condemnation for the takeover of the country but did little to curb Ethiopia's aggressive conspiracy as the government planned a takeover of the Horn of Africa. The United States which had also been operating in Somalia before the takeover were given little time to withdraw their equipment which included MQ-9 Reaper drones. Ethiopia would put the US and Emirati bases under a lockdown until "further action would be decided." Ethiopia and Somalia's army would then work in "cooperation" against Islamist insurgencies within Somali territory while Ethiopia would enforce it's control with military police in the streets of Somali cities. The UAE, fearing that Somaliland was another target began to fortify and further supply their bases in Somaliland. Egypt would follow with further supply of their base in Somaliland and even sending 2 divisions to their base and would use their navy to safeguard supply ships heading for their base. Air strikes would become a common sight for Ethiopian operations but would turn into indiscriminate bombing raids as many Puntland civilians were also bombed during the strikes.
Convoy of Puntland technicals not far from the frontline.
With Somalia and the ports occupied by Ethiopian forces, which included an Emirati commercial port in Barawe the government decided to use the ports to import resources, munitions and crucial food and oil supplies for the army and their citizens with imports of army supplies reportedly coming in from China and Iran and oil coming in from Turkey. Ethiopia would also take the economic output of Somalia, forcing anyone that disagreed with the puppet government, surrendered Islamist and Puntland rebels being forced to mine tin, phosphate, guano, iron ore and coal to supply the armies under harsh conditions and to sleep in overcrowded and poorly maintained prisoner barracks. Egypt and the alliance of the East African Federation saw this as a brutal war crime and announced that all diplomatic ties and trade with Ethiopia and begin mobilization for defensive purposes against the rouge East African nation. Elsewhere on the Sahel, Nigeria announced that military action was the only choice as negotiations with the coup leaders in Niamey was now futile and with Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali mobilizing for war, Nigeria was forced into declaring war against the coup government in Niger. Despite Nigeria's superior army, the rest of the ECOWAS countries' armies comprised of little to no fighting force and only several armored fighting cars with their air force either being non-existent or only having a few helicopters and little to no aircraft. Instead, a joint Guinean-Malian force struck first invading Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau, while Burkina Faso focused it's army on Togo and Benin. Ghana, Liberia, Cote d'Ivorie and Senegal were forced to send forces to their allies as Nigeria, despite initial success in the invasion of Niger was now forced to contend with Biafran insurgencies and other rebel groups in the Niger Delta. The US and Entente showed significant support for ECOWAS especially France which had vowed to get revenge on the coup leaders in Mali and Niger. Rogue Wagner Group forces was reportedly among the invasion force of the Malian-Guinean and Burkina Faso invasions into ECOWAS countries.
West African and East African fronts at the beginning of 2026. Yellow represents the Azawad rebellions. Grey represents the Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso.
Despite several requests, Chad still refused to intervene in Mali and would only intervene on the purpose of defense if any incident were to occur on the Chadian-Nigerien border. Nevertheless, Nigeria was forced into diversifying their forces to counter the invasions of its ECOWAS allies and used their air force to launch air strikes against ongoing columns of the invaders. Some countries would even begin to try and send support to ECOWAS, notably South Africa which had been facing severe economic and political discontent within their own borders, with mass load shedding and rampant political instability even before the war. Some within South Africa and even convincing from Senegalese and Nigerian diplomatic envoys suggested that South Africa deploy an expeditionary force to Nigeria, Benin and Ghana to help rescue the ECOWAS countries. With the offer in mind, those in the South African parliament argued back and forth depending on sending the expeditionary force, and this would culminate in the order being severely delayed, forcing Nigeria to extend their troop numbers towards Liberia and Sierra Leone to prevent the offensives from reaching Monrovia and Freetown. This would be a minor success for Nigeria as it has the strongest army within West Africa and managed in delaying the offensives, while giving Nigeria more initiative to invade Niger although the desert would slowly begin to slow down the offensive. Burkina Faso's own offensives into Benin and Togo were no help either due to it's overtaxed army and having to deal with Jihadist insurgencies on the northern portions of the country. Mali's invasion was also hampered due to having it spread out with one half simultaneously invading Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau while the other parts were contending to similar Islamist and Azawad insurgencies up north too. Despite minor success for Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali, the problems that they suffered before the war's beginning would plague them when Nigeria launched counter strikes against their forces and the front ended up in a temporary stalemate.
Europe: Battle of the Air, Land and Sea[]
Despite European and American navies having better quality weapons for the navies, air forces and ground forces, Russia began throwing them all into ambushes from heavily built fortifications and the sea began to see real combat. The American and European navies frequently combatted the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea but due to the extensive deployment of sea mines, it turned the Baltic Sea into a deathtrap for some of the Entente ships and that the ships of the Baltic navies, and Polish navies couldn't stand the mammoth of the Russian naval ships such as the Udaloy and Sovremeney class destroyers. Using the mines as natural protection, the Russian Navy Baltic Fleet would use long-range missile attacks to devastating effect, using them to blow up Entente supply convoys and to wreak havoc on the battlefield and punch holes in the enemy lines. The only weakness for Russia's Navy was that it lacked any aircraft carriers in the fleet as the only one being the Admiral Kuznetsov was supporting the Syrian and Iranian forces in the Middle East and meant that Russia could only use aircraft from occupied territory. Nevertheless, the battle in the Baltic Sea continued and the Danish Navy, along with the German Navy, remnants of the Baltic fleets and Polish Navy attempted to counter the Russian Naval presence and terminate the mines. US aircraft carriers and strike submarines that arrived at the Danish coast would work with conjunction with Polish and German aircraft to strike any Russian forces on the Hel Peninsula and Kaliningrad, which was heavily defended by anti-ship missiles. The North Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy would play defensive strategies with mining the waters and having long-range attack aircraft in Murmansk to prevent a NATO naval incursion from the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap.
USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier in the Baltic Sea.
Russia's Barents Sea Fleet was also put on high alert as submarines from the UK and US submarines were reportedly attempting to launch strikes and threaten the North Russian coastline. The result of the North Sea and Barents Sea clashes would become some of the biggest naval battles of World War III but would ultimately have Russia come out with a pyrrhic victory and have their navy mine the waters around their islands and even mine areas of their coastline of Murmansk to prevent further incursions into their waters. During the clashes in the Baltic Sea, explosions and catastrophic gas leaks were reported once more as the Nordstream 2 Pipeline had been scuttled once more. Both sides began pointing fingers at each other for the scuttling of the pipeline but wasn't clear who scuttled it. The result of the pipeline's destruction ended with thousands of gallons of gas being leaked into the sea causing an ecological catastrophe for marine life. The Entente, realizing the defensive game Russia was playing in the Baltic Sea was forced to call off any attacks due to the risk of aircraft and ASM attacks from afar. The resulting withdrawal would have Russian VDV divisions land on Gotland Island of Sweden and the Finnish Aland Islands and to prevent any Swedish counterattacks, would fortify the island and mine the waters around it. On the beaches of Gotland, dragon teeth and mines were placed to hamper any counterattack while Russia turned the island into a base for Iskander ICBMs and for aircraft to operate out of. In Poland, Russia knew of the Entente preparing for major counteroffensives against their attacks would decide to turn the frontline into a deathtrap for Entente columns and in occupied Warsaw, S-400 and S-300 SAM sites were emplaced while also building pillboxes and trenches to house anti-tank guided missile systems such as the Krizhantema and Kornet ATGMs. Elsewhere on the frontline, Chinese, Kazakh and Belarusian forces on the northern portions of Ukraine would turn towards the Slovak border and launch incursions to distract NATO forces that focused on Poland. Remnants of the Slovakian, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian forces from the Lviv Resistance Curb were caught off guard but despite the surprise incursion into Slovak territory, the offensive was slowed down but not before parts of Slovakia were taken by the offensive. Because of the minor success made by SMP forces on Slovakia, NATO was forced to redirect British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and American reinforcements to Slovakia, and this would prove to play in the SMP's favor for some parts of the European front.
Czech forces patrolling Slovak countryside.
In South Europe, reinforcements from Greece, Italy and Croatia would finally catch up with the retreated Montenegrin, Romanian and Ukrainian forces that fled Ukraine and reorganized to prepare to prevent any further attacks by Russian forces and to protect Romania from the SMP wrath. Despite Bulgaria's original stance of defensive purposes, seeing the SMP conquest of Ukraine, put it's army at high alert and even sent humanitarian aid to refugees and military aid to Entente armies. Unbeknownst to the hurried and stressed preparations of the Entente planning for Southeast Europe, another attack was being prepared to take them by storm. Russian forces in the unrecognized country of Transnistria would allow Russian forces to enter Moldova and thus invade another country of Europe. Despite the Moldovan government's requests for the Russians to withdraw, they were ultimately ignored and the Transnistrian-Russian invasion of Moldova began. Moldova called for Entente assistance which only now seeing the surprise invasion barreling straight for them hastily launched a counterattack with Romanian and Italian forces being the first to arrive in Chisinau as Russia began taking cities from Moldova left and right with major ones being Bălți, Comrat and eventually setting their sights on Chisinau. The Moldovan forces collapsed under the intense pressure of the Russian-Transnistrian offensives and were pushed back to a final stand at the capital. With the rest of the reinforcements catching up to the battered and beaten Moldovan forces, supported by the Italian and Romanian reinforcements, the siege of Chisinau would determine the fate of Moldova for the war as fierce fighting kicked off in the city.
Convoy of Transnistrian APCs in destroyed Moldovan countryside.
But behind the frontlines, discontent was rampant with the SMP as Russia and their allies had to contend with riots in their occupied territory as the protests in occupied Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland turned into full-scale riots and even saw the murdering of several military police officers. In Ukraine, the fighting between the Donbass government, pro-Russians, Tajik and Kyrgyzstani forces clashing with Ukrainian partisans reached a severe level that resembled actual warfare. In retaliation, the police forces were authorized for deadly force and resulted in brutal massacres with satellite images capturing corpses rotting in the streets without burial. In Belarus, once again protests broke out against Lukashenko's dictatorship and were this time on a larger scale. These protests were futile as Russian, Belarusian and Chinese forces stationed in the country retaliated with tear gas attacks and even jailed many protesters or sent them as labor force or militia-trained soldiers into the war where a similar tactic was used in the 2022 Ukraine War where prisoners were used to pinpoint fire points of Ukrainian soldiers and then hit them with artillery. In Sevastopol, Crimean Tartars protested the authoritarian rule of Russia only to be responded with a similar fate to the Belarusian protesters but with harsher punishment. Several weeks had passed and despite fierce fighting, the surrounding towns of Chisinau and the city itself fell to the Transnistrian-Russian invasion and the Entente and Moldovan troops would call a full retreat, destroying as many infrastructure points as they could. With Moldova under full control, Russia would have the Transnistrians govern a Puppet State of Moldova while Russia used the airport in Tiraspol as a hub to ship weapon supplies and munitions to the front.
Asian Front: Formation of the Taiwanese Exile Government[]
Due to the immense strength of both the Entente and SMP forces on the Southeast Asian, Indian and Korean fronts of the Asian Theatre of the war, it was turning into a stalemate as neither side could get the upper hand and was beginning to look already like the European front. In Korea, the South Korean, US and Japanese forces, joined by Australian, Filipino and New Zealand reinforcements began pushing back the Sino-North Korean invasion from Incheon and Seoul and began making pushes towards the DMZ once more. China realizing that without any further intervention, Pyongyang would fall, China calls on Russia and Mongolia to send reinforcements to North Korea. Both oblige with Russia utilizing their air force to challenge Entente air supremacy in Korea and to harass supply lines in South Korea. This was meant to reinforce China and North Korea's air forces as China's began suffering substantial losses and North Korea's air force consisted of outdated aircraft they inherited during the Cold War. With more Mongolian and Russian reinforcements supporting the Sino-North Korean invasion, they began pushing back against Entente forces and before they reach the DMZ, their offensive is countered by SMP forces, managing to retake Chuncheon and Sokcho.
USAAF F-35 over Korean airspace.
Despite the intense dogfights in the Korean skies, China still suffered substantial losses as the US, Japanese and South Korean air forces would often work in cooperation and despite Russia's Vladivostok Air Force active against the three, it had only deployed a fraction of it to Pyongyang as the rest were kept in the air base for protection of Russian territory. This would give the air war in the favor of the Entente, and exploiting this advantage, the US would even launch daring raids on Chinese costal cities such as Qingdao and these raids would impact the Chinese war industry and would even go as far as launching bombing raids on North Korean cities and the Yalu River crossing points. China in retaliation would fire hypersonic speed ICBMs towards US bases in the Pacific Ocean, mainly at Guam and would even utilize them against US carriers in the Pacific. The resulting strikes would not only have soldiers, sailors and pilots killed, but would also have Guam civilians killed in the crossfire, and China would even commit extensive torture on South Korean citizens that were caught up in the fray. Not letting up from their ICBM war, China also fired DF-10 990 pound missiles at Taipei, Kyushu, Osaka and Busan to cripple infrastructure of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan and adding to injury, the PLA Navy would encircle Taiwan's coastline forming a blockade and preventing many vital supplies from reaching the resilient island nation. The blockade would heavily impact US support for Taiwan as their equipment that was on ships had to be rediverted to the Philippines and Japan under the threat of submarines lurking within the blockade, and the remaining US reinforcements in Taiwan were stranded. The Taiwanese and US forces would call a retreat to Taipei and organize a final defense with the pre-prepared defenses in what they called, "The Black Bear Line." With the population also mobilized and trained, when the Chinese forces stormed the city, they were still met with fierce partisan resistance within many corners of Taipei's streets. China in retaliation would commit gruesome massacres of Taiwanese resistance. PLA soldiers were ordered to shoot any civilian on the streets, regardless if they were armed or not or were attempting to flee while China's Air Force and navy would routinely engage aircraft attempting to flee from Taiwan and the blockade of the country. While some aircraft were shot down, some would still escape unscathed, and one of these aircraft that escaped carried the Taiwanese leader, Tsai Ing-Wen and many of her associates. The plane would ferry them to Sacramento, California where they would establish a government in-exile and vowed that Taiwan will continue to fight even under occupation. Taiwanese forces that did manage an escape through the blockade would flee to the Philippines and Japan which had already been accepting many Taiwanese refugees and it created a large diaspora of displaced Taiwanese refugees. With much of Taiwan under control, the Chinese would establish their foothold further on the country with security forces in the major cities and apart from a puppet government of Taiwanese that were sympathetic to China, the PLA would also establish air defenses around the shores and have ICBM emplacements in Taipei as well as using the harbor and airport as a forward operating base for ships and aircraft.
PLA Air Force aircraft airlifting equipment to occupied Taiwan.
With much of Taiwan conquered and Taiwan's government in exile in the United States, China began to assert control and with ICBMs and aircraft on the island, would begin launching air and missile raids against the Philippines and targeted strikes towards south Vietnam to hamper supply lines. Taiwanese forces that fled to Japan would be deployed to the Okinawa islands to bolster Japanese forces while remaining Taiwanese forces that fled to the Philippines would be stationed there and while some would see redeployment in Vietnam, the remaining would stay in Manila in the event of a Chinese invasion. China would then set their sights on hopes of launching attacks against Japan, and in doing so, PLA Marines, the ones that landed in Taiwan redirected and laned in Okinawa Islands. Supported by PLA submarines and battleships, Chinese supply ships traveled safely to supply the marines landing on Okinawa. The Japanese, US and redeployed Taiwanese forces would also suffer naval bombardments and aerial bombings and under the intense pressure, the combined forces withdrew to the Japanese mainland. With Okinawa now as another forward base under Chinese control, the PLA Navy would frequently clash with the Japanese and US Pacific Fleet while also threatening the South Korean island of Jeju. Japanese and Taiwanese forces that fled in ships from Okinawa would end up on Jeju Island and would become the island's only defense as it was now threatened by Chinese invasions from the south and that the South Korean garrison was deployed to Seoul. China would use Okinawa as a repair station and as a forward harbor for their ships to operate but would suffer constant bombardment during the war as US B-52 bombers deployed in Tokyo and Nagoya would continuously bomb the occupied islands to weaken China's grip. Because of the PLA Air Force deployed against India, Vietnam and Korea, it gave the Allies better shots at performing air raids against Chinese occupied territory and even would go as far to challenge the Chinese strongholds on Taiwan and using the bombers in the dead of night managed to cripple Chinese made infrastructure in their occupied territories. Because of the Entente forces spread on multiple fronts in Asia, the SMP forces reorganized and launched Operation 38th Parallel, and with Chinese, reinvigorated North Koreans, Russian and Mongolian forces, they broke through the defensive lines and retook Chuncheon, Uijeongbu and Gangneung but failed in taking Incheon. Despite failing at Incheon, they managed to launch another encirclement of Seoul forcing Japanese, Filipino, South Korean, Australian and US forces to launch another atrocious battle to prevent Seoul from falling into SMP hands.
South Korean tank outside of Seoul in combat.
Although skirmishes were limited in the East Sea, there were occasional naval clashes between Russia and Japan but like in the Baltic Sea, Russia mined the waters around their coastline and would attempt air raids from Vladivostok targeting Hokkaido to prevent any invasion into Kamchatka. Fearing that the Kuril Islands could be targeted by Japanese and US raids, Russia mined the Kuril waters and built fortifications on the Kuril Islands and in Kamchatka. The Russian Navy knew that it wouldn't last long in naval combat against the Japanese and US and resorted to using baiting tactics for their submarines to attack US ships. China and India remained in a deadlock for the war as the Himalayan Mountains were now proving to be detrimental for both sides in the face of combat. Chinese generals then decided to use flat land in Tibet to construct air fields to act as forward bases while also concocting plans to get other countries to fight India. But due to Chinese technological superiority, they managed to gain ground in India and would manage to get their armor and mechanized forces through the Himalayas as China utilized Indian prisoners, dissidents and according to allegations from the US and India, Tibetan and Uyghur prisoners to construct efficient roads to support Chinese convoys. Chinese and Burmese forces would eventually advance into the Arunchal Pradesh and Nagaland while gaining towns such as Tinsukia and Jorhat. Despite the victories in the east, they were pyrrhic victories as Indian forces resorted to using guerilla styled tactics to ambush and destroy Chinese forces. The resulting ambushes and piling casualties saw Chinese retaliation in the form of missile strikes that flattened the terrain to allow Chinese and Burmese forces to move safely. China would then begin demanding the remaining neutral countries to join China in turn for economic benefit. The immense pressure would eventually force the last two countries neutral with India to join the war would be Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Bangladeshi forces would launch attacks towards West Bengal while Chinese and Sri Lankan forces began mobilizing despite wanting neutrality, Sri Lanka would be forced into declaring war on China. Bhutanese forces would evacuate into India and would regroup with Indian reinforcements, but because of Bangladesh's entry into the war, Indian forces were at risk of being cut into two as Chinese forces now in conquered Bhutan prepared to mass an invasion force into India, while Nepalese forces would also cross into India with Chinese support.
Bangladeshi tank patrolling the Indian countryside.
The intense pressure brought on by the invasion of Bhutan, West Bengal, Himalayas and Arunchal Pradesh saw India's army in calamity as they struggled to organize proper resistance against the Chinese led invasion on multiple fronts, while having many of their forces concentrated on Pakistan and Kashmir. The Australian reinforcements to India would arrive but in the arrival, they were quickly forced eastwards to prevent East India from being cutoff by Chinese forces and that Bhutanese and Indian forces in the region were still trying to organize resistance. To at the very least delay the offensives, India and Australia began funding and sending weapons to ethnic guerillas in Burmese territory to energize them to wage war against Myanmar's authoritarian government while Aung San Suu Kyi, who was exiled to Singapore would begin leading a resistance campaign against Myanmar's authoritarian government and with CIA help, would incite riots and support guerilla insurgencies in the country's forest and countryside. Cambodia under intense pressure from both sides ended up joining the war on China's side, allowing for Chinese forces to use the airfields in Phnom Penh to be forward deployed and in hopes of siding with China, Cambodia hoped to gain economic benefits by the end of the war. Cambodia's army began mobilization while also beginning to shell the Vietnamese border and prepare for invasions by Thai and Vietnamese forces. Chinese jets that were deployed to Phnom Penh would launch air raids on Thailand and southern Vietnam and the Entente was forced in diverting forces to Thailand and the border with Cambodia to prevent a Chinese led invasion on both fronts. Because of the sudden influx of maritime traffic crossing Indonesian waters, the Indonesian government began taking an aggressive stance to the ships passing through the straits and channels. Despite being a crucial member in ASEAN and supporting huge geographical importance, it had growing ties with China before the war and had political strife with Australia with the main justification being the support of West Papua rebels and the alleged harassment towards Indonesian refugees as well as support for East Timor. The war was used by Indonesia as justification for intensifying the war with Papuan rebels while being supported by Islamist rebels. The Indonesian Navy received orders to repel any ships that got too close in an exclusion zone of Indonesia's waters but with different numbers that was considered a violation. Indonesia would launch series of fiery allegations of the Entente ships and aircraft were violating what they claimed as national waters and airspace and in turn, began increasing naval and aerial patrols over Indonesian airspace and waters and even running alongside Entente supply ships and aircraft as warning signs.
The situation in Asia as of 2026
One one fateful morning, an Indonesian warship was keeping a close eye on Entente ships bound for Vietnam forcing the escort ships, being Australian fired warning shots at the vessel, prompting the Indonesian ship to retaliate in kind and when the Indonesian vessel engaged the supply ship and escorts, it managed to land a hit on one of the supply ships, although the damage wasn't severe. Ultimately it prompted a declaration of war on Indonesia from both Australia and New Zealand. Indonesia would then begin to block the Strait of Malacca and other pathways that the ships were using to get to the fronts and the Indonesian Air Force and Navy would sink any that didn't comply. Australia and Indonesia would then begin fierce engagements along the chokepoints in order to get ships to India and Vietnam. Indonesia would spread their navy all around to force the Australians into doing the same and then leave unguarded ships to be blown up. Australia having technological advancements over Indonesia would use their air force to launch strikes against the Indonesian vessels, although it was harder to find the Indonesian submarines as they kept submerged out of sight of the Australian radars. Australia would continue their air attacks by bombing Moa, Tanimbar, Rote and many other Indonesian islands and while they destroyed potential for Indonesian air bases, the bombs ended up causing massive forest fires that ravaged much of the landscape and while not many civilians were present on said islands during the bombings, the wild fires were enough to send fear through them and endanger many wildlife creatures being displaced from their habitats. Seeing another ASEAN member siding with the SMP, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines would send their status to code red and ramp up mobilization to prevent what they deemed an inevitable invasion by Indonesia. While both Malaysia and Indonesia had refrained from clashing, casualties were reported in the Straits of Malacca as Indonesian ships still on orders to attack Entente ships, the Indonesian Navy misidentified a civilian ship for a troop transport ship and open fired on the vessel, sinking it and killing dozens aboard, and further cemented Indonesia's place in the SMP by the higher ups in the Entente. Immediately, the rest of the ASEAN nations, with the exception of Laos and Cambodia suspended trade with Indonesia and all Indonesians were either jailed or deported back home. Despite the Indian advance into Pakistan and their defense of the Thar Desert, their advance was stopped in a deadlock due to the other fronts, and Pakistan, with support from the Afghan, Kazakh, Uzbek and Tajik forces would launch a devastating counter offensives into Punjub. With Khalistani groups aiding, the Indian army suffered from high attrition due to an enemy within.
Middle East: Attrition at it's worst[]
Despite the gains made by Entente forces in the Middle East, the frontiers in the Gulf, Lebanon and Syria were starting to show stagnation for their offensives as guerilla warfare and the pre-prepared defenses, as well as the chemical weapons being deployed began to hamper their ability to wage great operations. The Iranian speedboats, being quick and nimble were able to distract US naval forces as they engaged the Iranian Navy. The distractions caused by the speedboats would allow Iranian submarines, ASM batteries and aircraft fitted with ASM missiles to damage many US ships and those that were damaged were forced to retreat with ships docking in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for repairs. In Lebanon, Lebanese resistance forces were quelled by joint Hezbollah and Iranian forces and despite many Israeli forces trying to rescue Lebanese prisoners, they were forced to withdraw as Iran began attempting to bomb Israeli supply convoys. Israeli aircraft attempted to bomb the hideouts and bases of Hezbollah in Lebanon but due to the dozens of underground tunnel networks, they were barely successful.
Israeli F-15 taking off from an air base in Eliat.
The air attacks did minimal damage and the Iranian and Israeli air forces would engage over Lebanese airspace with the Iranian F-14s dogfighting the Israeli F-35s over the skies, and would determine who would gain air superiority for the Lebanese theatre. Although Biden would promise air support for the Israelis, the arrangement was never made due to the ongoing combat in Europe and East Asia and only a handful of US jets would support Israeli forces and nothing else. Despite resilient resistance from Lebanese guerillas and Israeli forces in Beirut, the city would also fall into a lengthy siege and with a lack of evacuation procedures done, many civilians were caught in the crossfire with many dying from gunfire from both sides. Iran would also extend their usage of chemical weapons against the entrenched forces and would even have civilians hit by chemical weapon attacks to further dislodge efforts by Israel. Civilians that were captured by Iranian and Hezbollah soldiers were often exploited for propaganda usage and would be exploited into being tortured or being rounded up and massacred, to at the very least convince Lebanese forces and citizens alike to fight Israeli forces and deter their efforts from the Entente. With the frontline becoming stagnated, both sides resorted to mass artillery and missile bombardments to try and weaken their opponent. Iranian and Hezbollah launched missiles were mainly targeted at Israeli supply lines and cities once more. While the Iron Dome systems would intercept the missiles, a small number of them would end up hitting their targets, causing mass casualties. Because of predominant air superiority by the Entente, the SMP air forces were struggling to gain territory and launch counteroffensives and counterattacks against their adversary and began digging in to slow down, conscripting civilians to join the war, and pressure the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan to join the war.
Emirati APC in the Iraqi Desert
Nevertheless, Arab troops led by Saudi Arabia and the US continued to push into Iraqi territory and managed to threaten the Iranian border and Baghdad and along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, skirmishes began to occur as the Entente forces hurled themselves towards the Iranian built defenses and gave enough time for Iranian reinforcements to reach Iraq. Despite this setback, US airpower bombed the structures into oblivion and continued to push further. Egyptian, Jordanian, Israeli, French, US and British forces, supported by numerous FSA rebels broke through the defenses along the outskirts of Damascus while launching numerous air strikes on the city itself to level any form of strategic defense. The Russian forces in Latakia increased their presence and began retaliation of their own, mainly against the British, US and French forces. Russian ground forces would arrive in Damascus and would see clashes against US forces, while Wagner Group forces that were stuck in Syria, began engaging US forces along the demilitarized line but were disorganized due to a lack of proper command and logistical issues they faced after the outbreak in Europe. Although the Entente enjoyed their numerous victories in Iraq and Syria, one of the main members, Saudi Arabia used their position in the alliance to hide numerous war crimes that they committed in the battlefield, mainly with the ethnic cleansing operations, with the main allegation that Shias in Iraq and Syria were being rounded up and put on 2 sentences, without proper trials. Some were put to work repairing infrastructure for Entente convoys to move supplies securely or were executed on-sight. Journalists that managed to catch any form of the Saudi atrocities attempted to smuggle the footage out to the rest of the world, and in response, mass protests from the big cities such as Berlin, DC, Chicago, Paris and Montreal erupted, but despite acknowledgement from the Entente governments, they stayed silent as Saudi Arabia was a major supplier of oil to some of these countries and the Wahhabi Regime deflected allegations claiming to only kill Iranian spies and with counterterrorism missions. In response, Iran and Iraq would fight fire with fire, rounding up and arresting Sunnis in their territory, while unconfirmed reports made their way about these Sunnis in Iran being executed as the Mullah Regime blamed it on civil unrest, although, like the massacres, the reports were unconfirmed.
Syrian Tank in a totaled neighborhood.
Turkish forces continued with their operations with renewed attacks against Rojava and Peshmerga, relentlessly marching through much of their territory and would launch mass artillery and air bombardments with little to no regard to civilians in the vicinity of the strikes. Vigorous resistance from Rojava, Peshmerga and other groups were futile despite best attempts as Erdogan's forces marched southwards on the Euphrates and Tigris River, and would also conduct more atrocious war crimes against citizens of Kurdish ethnicity. Many Kurdish women were gang raped and then discarded to die, while some were boarded in houses that would be set ablaze, and even with some men and boys being forced to repair infrastructure to allow Turkish forces to move more efficiently, and when that was done, the same laborers were put up by firing squads and killed, with others being forced to dig their own graves. Children were beaten relentlessly by the rifle stocks, bats and even sharp tools such as crowbars, while the corpses would be piled onto one another before being burned. Turkey would go on to deny any form of these allegations and would often label it propaganda of Greece, Armenia and Cyprus, while also beginning mass censorship of medias within the country, and cutting international news ties, banning news websites from being accessed in their country. In order to mask their genocidal rampage, Turks in the seats of the Entente HQs had made fiery reports of Iranian missiles and troops engaging Turkish forces on the Turkish border, and that did convince many in the Entente HQs that Turkey was indefinitely on the side of the Entente, but in reality, there was no skirmish or missiles firing, but rather Turkish trucks supplying ammo to Iran and conducting joint air strikes on Kurdish territory. Despite extensive collaboration with the SMP, Russia was still frustrated with Turkey's terms as on some occasions, Turkish aircraft would attack Russian aircraft during dogfights over Syria and that Turkey still supported weapon shipments to Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
Operation Bison Charge: Counterattack on Kaliningrad[]
With much of the Scandinavian, Moldovan-Romanian lines and the war in the seas becoming static, and with SMP victories in the Baltics, Georgia, Warsaw and Ukraine, the Entente began drawing up plans for countering their offensives, with many new recruits charging into the frontlines, while Entente armor and air power clashed with their SMP counterparts. With the deployment of Patriot and NASAM AA systems in Poland, air dominance gradually began to favor the Entente despite constant harassment from Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh and Chinese aircraft. When the SMP charged into Poland, the Polish forces that fought on the Hel Peninsula were forced into retreating, and despite rigorous resistance, buying time for the civilians in the area to escape, the Polish forces would evacuate to Denmark and Germany, Entente command began drawing up plans for a surprise counteroffensive onto the enclave of Kaliningrad where many air and ICBM operations had been taking place. Because of the SMP's focus on fortifying the frontlines after the battles of Warsaw, Odessa and their surges in Moldova, Entente reconnaissance satellites would observe a small brigade defending the enclave, and Entente marines would attempt to launch a counter charge to distract the SMP forces.
Long-range Russian SAM systems guarding the Kaliningrad coast.
Troops from Denmark, Germany, France, the US and on a smaller extent, remnants of the Polish and Baltic forces launched incursions on Kaliningrad, with the aims of eliminating the Iskander ICBMs, and various aircraft stationed on the territory while British, German and French naval ships near the coast launched missiles against strategic positions on the base itself, and even the Russian Baltic Fleets. Kaliningrad would be regarded as the first piece of Russian territory attacked by the Entente in the war. Due to the strategic value it posed, the counterattack from Russian and other SMP forces was rather fierce. With the combined firepower, Entente forces maneuvered their way into the city but their air losses began to mount with long-range S-400 and short-range Buk SAM systems mounting losses on many of their aircraft. Russia would then deploy VDV brigades to reinforce Kaliningrad, and from Villinus, Riga and Tallinn, launch Kalibr ICBM strikes on Entente positions, with a lack of regard for their own forces fighting in the enclave. The missile strikes allowed Russian forces to gain ground against the charging forces and drove them back several kilometers, but the Russian fleet was unable to support them due to their clashes with the European ships, and their losses were beginning to mount significantly as Russia's Navy focused on more defensive strategies. This would give time for US carriers to maneuver into the Baltic Sea and with aircraft such as the F-18 and F-15 being used to inflict losses onto Kaliningrad's base.
Polish fighter jet soaring over Kaliningrad airspace.
With the aerial and naval incursions occurring on Kaliningrad, it managed to divert manpower away from the frontline and with attempts of thwarting and cutting off the offensive, but Russia going further would utilize Iskander and Kalibr ICBMs into creating thousands of casualties on both sides. But due to the technological superiority in Entente's satellites, their aircraft managed to neutralize several of these launchers, while some would also use kamikaze drones to do the same task. The ramped bombing attacks by the Belarusian and Russian aircraft only increased the number of casualties for the Entente, including recruits that were trained a militia's rate. German forces, despite being the most powerful in Europe, had conscripts that were unfit for such duty and were obliterated in much of the fighting. Spetsnaz forces were deployed to engage in sabotage and jamming missions and with systems such as the Krasukha-4, the Entente attacks were hampered severely due to a lack of radio communication, and the attack on Kaliningrad then became an evacuation as the Entente and NATO deemed that Operation Bison Charge was no longer viable and that all remaining forces within Kaliningrad should flee to Denmark and Germany for refitting, and to rearm for the fight. During these evacuation procedures, Russia used the opportunity to launch inhumane attacks on the NATO task force.
Russian BM-30 Smerch firing rockets with incendiary munitions.
Russia, having an advantage with artillery deployed it's arsenal of TOS-1 Buratino, BM-30 Smerch and BM-27 Uragan MLRS systems to fire on retreating Entente forces from the territory, and each MLRS system had rockets filled with variety of munitions, but the majority of them were of thermobaric, cluster, incendiary and chemical warheads that targeted roads and the forests, and turned many of the open areas of green grass and houses, into nothing but charred dead zones. The thermobaric explosions that were fired by the Buratino would suck out oxygen from the soldiers to start ravage fires, and the heat would cause lethal burns and with internal damage to the organs in the body, many Entente soldiers died in rather gory methods. The napalm and incendiary warheads caused intense fires that resulted in 3rd degree burns, suffocation, hemorrhaging, and many other effects. Reactive elements were also a major player in causing the fatalities as some of these warheads contained magnesium, white phosphorus and mercury. Entente air power worked round the clock to try and pummel as many of these rocket systems as fast as possible to allow for evacuation to commence, with even C-130s and B-52s being used in the destruction of these artillery pieces. With the distraction made, it allowed for some Entente gains, as German Leopard 2A7s, accompanied by Polish PT-91 Twardy and British Challenger 2 tanks engaged in brutal tank warfare against Russian T-80UM, T-90 and T-14 Armata tanks. French Leclercs engaged Russian T-72BUs and Kazakh T-72s, and American Abrams engaged Chinese ZTZ-99 tanks. Both sides were accompanied by helicopters in the fighting, as American Apache and Cobra helicopters, supported by German-French Eurocopters, and British Augusta Apaches armed with HOT 3, Hellfires, Stingers, Mistral, PARS 3 and Spike ATGMs engaged the tanks, while Russian KA-50s, Mi-24 and Mi-28 helicopters supported their tanks against the Entente counterparts being equipped with Krizhantema, Shturm, Verba, Vikhir and Igla missiles, further supported by Belarusian and Kazakh Mi-24s, equipped with similar weapon loadouts.
Croatian MLRS systems in the field.
With the fronts in Poland now becoming more active, the war still turned into what resembled the Iran-Iraq War's attrition as both sides began using inhumane methods to one up another but ended up with tremendous losses for both combatants. The battlefields would then morph into the horrors of what was seen in World War I and II as the power of these weapons managed to prove their worth in destruction. The Entente would then call off the attack on Kaliningrad, deeming it a failure, and pulled out the task force before SMP commandos could encircle the task force. "Costal Hellhole." Is what the survivors referred to the Kaliningrad Raid as it became one of the bloodiest battles on the European front. Entente strategists, mainly Jens Stoltenberg of NATO decided that a new strategy had to be adopted for fighting in the frontline. Instead, both sides ended up digging into trenches with pillboxes, land mines and strings of defenses all over Poland and even some that stretched towards the Moldova-Romania line. The fortification on the trenches and the constant digging manage to make it reminiscent of World War I as the conditions once more became unbearable for both sides. Although the Entente still had an advantage for their trenches, the Russian defenses were more strung out and had more pre-planning put into them to make them deathtraps for air, vehicle and infantry maneuvers. The SMP would then go on to fortify Chisinau and other occupied cities in Poland and Moldova, and once again, gained a status as no-mans land.
Indian Subcontinent: South Asian Annihilation[]
Despite the attempted Pakistani offensive into the Indian Thar Desert, their forward maneuvers were futile and the Indian columns broke through and pushed the Pakistani tanks back. Despite an Indian victory at first, the tanks being exposed to severe heat of the desert caused several of them to break down, and the same was said for the Pakistani tanks. Despite major victory in the Himalayas for China, the Indian forces when retreating rigged mountain passages and bridges with explosives that managed to hinder the mechanized and armored columns maneuvering their way through the mountains. Despite the Indians buying time for mobilization, it was still short-lived as Bangladeshi, Burmese, Nepalese and Chinese forces were still preparing offensives for India, and the Australian and US reinforcements have been slowed down.
Pakistani soldiers marching towards the frontlines.
Out in the open seas, naval clashes between the Indian and Pakistani navies were frequent, and while the Indian Navy held significant advantage over Pakistan, the Pakistani Navy would lure the Indian Navy towards Karachi where barrages of anti-ship missiles would be fired. Despite these missiles being intercepted, the Indian Navy would still suffer damage to their ships, with some suffering severe damage, that it required a tow back to the ports. The rest of the frontlines remained stagnant as the fighting in the Indus Delta wetlands saw brutal fighting and inhumane tactics used by both sides, such as the submerging of electrical cables, with tactics like that being reminiscent of the Iran-Iraq War. The fighting along the Thar Desert reached deadlock as Pakistan used dips in the sand to place ATGM systems to ambush tanks, while tanks became pillboxes as their engines failed to start due to the intense heat of the Rajasthan Province. Both sides resorted to utilizing their air forces to conduct raids on each other's soil, but due to aircraft in the Indian Air Force such as the Su-30MKI, Rafale and HAL Tejas gained superiority over Pakistani Mirage 5, Mirage III, F-16 and JF-17s in the air operations, but Pakistan was still able at executing some air attacks on Indian soil. The fighting in Kashmir remained in a stalemate due to the mountainous terrain, but the fighting in the Punjab province gave an advantage to Indian forces. The Pakistani Government then increased defenses around Islamabad, Hyderabad and Karachi seeing a potential downfall of Lahore and Gujranwala as a threat for the capital. China and the Central Asian countries increased support for Pakistan as Entente reports confirmed that forces from Afghan volunteers, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan were present in Lahore, Islamabad and Gujranwala to strengthen defenses, while Chinese aircraft reportedly dropped supplies to Pakistan.
Asian Front: Dragon's Destruction[]
With China's occupation of Taiwan now in full swing, came waves of Chinese attacks as their submarines launched targeted attacks against Japanese ships near Okinawa and supply ships in the South China Sea but a main portion of the strikes targeted Japan and the Kyushu Islands. With both Chinese and Japanese submarines playing a defensive war, reminiscent of the Battle of the Atlantic from World War II, Chinese Marines that previously participated in the capturing of Taiwan would be redeployed to land on the rest of Okinawa, to distract Japan, which forced the Japanese forces to withdraw portion of their forces from Korea.
Chinese aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.
The intense attacks on what was left of Okinawa forced the US to scale back support and send Marines to help defend the Japanese from losing the rest of Okinawa. Chinese forces would also step up their bombardment attacks with more missile stations being placed in occupied Taiwan and on Hainan Island and with additional missiles being used against both military and civilian targets of Entente countries. The step up in the bombardments would force the US in diversifying their assets to the other frontiers, but due to the quick reorganization of assets, the THAAD defense systems that were meant to head for Europe were instead redirected to Asia, and that played heavily when it came to swatting Russian missiles out of the sky. Continuing their rampage, China demanded for Laotian and Cambodian troops to involve themselves in the fighting, and with hesitance quelled via debt blackmailing, the two Indochinese states launched attacks on the Vietnamese regions of Tonkin and Annam, while Chinese forces began massing for an attempted invasion to land on the Filipino Islands to distract the US reinforcements. Chinese forces began targeting assets at Subic Bay and Clark Base in the Philippines to distract Filipino forces in Korea and Vietnam, and US soldiers in the Philippines. China would then commence an island-hopping campaign, reminiscent of that in World War II attempting to get a head start on the invasion, but due to the remaining US forces in the Philippines, Taiwanese exile troops and other Filipino forces present, combined with the overextended supply lines China created in the process, the Chinese invasion of the Philippines was short-lived and remaining PLA Marines retreated to Taipei and Hainan. Despite the rigorous resistance made by the Entente forces of South Korea, Japan, Philippines, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwanese Exile Forces, Seoul and much of northern South Korea remained under conflicted control especially with Seoul bombarded by Russian, North Korean, Chinese and Mongolian forces. The US resorted to undergoing risky raids against the Chinese mainland, similar to the Dolittle Raid, and while the raids were intercepted by Chinese fighters, many of the bombers hit their targets and crippled Chinese industrial capabilities for the war.
Cambodian MLRS systems firing
Taking the further initiative, the CIA decided to increase their strangles on China through several means. Ships began clashing with the PLA Navy into forming blockades against China to hinder trading operations. The combined navies of the Filipino, US, Vietnamese, Singaporean and Malayan Navies, including ships of the Taiwanese Exile Force began frequent clashes against the Chinese ships in the South China Sea, with US assets targeting the harbors all over China, starting with the Guangdong region, striking the harbors in Lantau, Hainan, Beijing, and while some were successful, many of the missiles were intercepted but still put pressure on the Chinese mainland. India was encouraged in the participation of the clashes against the Chinese Navy, but due to the ongoing clashes in the Malacca Straits and against Australia by Indonesian assets, India found it difficult to maneuver any remaining naval assets against China, due to their preoccupations with Burmese and Bangladeshi forces in the east, and with Pakistani and Chinese forces on the west. The attempted blockades were aborted due to Indonesia's activity ramping up in the war against the Entente and made shipping lines for supply and civilian lines harder to reach. Indonesian subs even went beyond their own waters to send threats to the Indian Navy that attempted crossings. Even when much of the fighting was in-vain for the Entente, word got around about protests erupting in China as the youth, disgruntled with the high prices due to the war began protesting to end the war. While they were small, the CIA sought interests in supporting protests against the CCP and funded these protests, while attempting to cause unrest in Hong Kong and Macau. Protests once more erupted in the two occupied city states, and while it caught the SMP off-guard, the Slavonic Corps cracked down on these protests indefinitely and quelled the protests, but not before causing major damage to infrastructure that China could've deemed useful. China brutally suppressed these protests and jailed many ringleaders of the protests, calling them "terrorists from within the borders of China." While Xi Jinping and his cabinet accused the 2nd Entente of destabilizing China, many who were arrested were sent to re-education camps where they saw brutal torture and some executed for those who didn't submit to the education methods.
Chinese civilians protesting against the war.
China's hand would become even fuller when reports came about uprisings by Tibetan rebels that escaped from their torture camps led uprisings against the PRC. Chinese police forces were diverted from the cities and into the mountains of the country to suppress the riots. Again, the ferocious claims made by the PRC of the Entente attempting to destabilize China were made and this time, the Entente fired back with their own string of counterclaims, claiming that China was destabilizing their neighbors for dominance. The fighting began reaching new levels of inhumane as the tactics used by both sides to one-up the other became more brutal. While it did not end with trench warfare like in Europe, the ferocity of the fighting reached levels nearer to the Middle East Front as both sides began using munitions banned in the Geneva Convention, such as cluster munitions and resorted to chemical styled warfare. The jungles of Indochina would be burned as both sides used napalm to smoke out the enemy while the seas of Malacca, Australasia and the South China Sea were laced with sea mines, and the landscape of the Koreas was terraformed beyond recognition as the brutal fighting left nothing but charred bodies and new landscapes, but still resulted in a stalemate for both sides. While leaders of the Second Entente nations came together for a unilateral solution, much of the NATO division of the Entente agreed with suspending trade with China, but to their confusion, Turkey, and the Gulf countries, despite being a part of the alliance refused on following with the sanctions, all except Israel, hoping to maintain good relations with both sides during the war. It didn't favor the Entente as the UAE and Saudi Arabia were also in the BRICS alliance since 2024.
2027[]
Europe: Serbia declares war[]
Because of a lack of movement on the European Theatre of the war, it was obvious that both sides began looking for different techniques to change the battlefield and to gain an advantage on their enemy after the slowdowns after the failed Kaliningrad Offensive and the stagnation in the Polish and Ukrainian-Romanian frontlines. Both sides planted minefields all over battlefield, while Russia utilized mine-laying MLRS trucks to further speed up their operations, while both sides utilized drone fleets to attack forces all over the battlefield, with Ukraine still utilizing the Bayraktar drones and even Kamikaze Drones against SMP forces, and in the skies, the US would deploy THAAD and Aegis systems, while Russia deployed S-400 systems to swat planes out of the sky. The US would then supply their NATO allies with heavier small arms with sales of Javelin ATGMs and M134 Miniguns, and modified vehicles to house RC-controlled guns, and M2 Brownings and M134s were modified with RC controls in the bunkers and trenches of the no-man's land. Despite the intricate defenses strung out by the Entente, Russian and CSTO ICBMs continuously struck the defenses while artillery continued raining hellfire on the bunkers and on the supply lines, although drones could easily solve this issue. Nevertheless, the Entente fired back with Tomahawk strikes on SMP supply lines and drone strikes on positions on the frontlines, hindering the SMP's advance into Romania and the rest of Poland.
Ukrainian M1 Abrams taking defensive positions.
Russia and the Entente continued to battle it out in the skies, but losses were starting to tip into the SMP as US-made F-22s, due to their speed, agility and stealth managed to inflict severe losses on Russian aircraft, and even managed to down SU-57s, with many questioning if Russia had learned it's lessons from warfare in Ukraine. F-35s, working with A-10s and F-16s worked in striking armored columns of SMP armies, managing to eliminate many T-90, ZTZ-99 and T-80 tanks of the Russian and Chinese armies. However, due to Turkish collaboration with Russia, and with S-400s purchased by Turkey, Russia could see the patterns of Entente aircraft and could strike back, with some kills of their own, while Russian Su-25s struck back with anti-tank runs of their own, escorted by Su-35s, while China transferred several of their own air-superiority and multirole aircraft to the European frontlines. In the Scandinavian frontlines, Russia once again attempted maneuvers to capture Kirkenes via encircling much of the Entente forces in Norway, via offensives in what remained of Finland, that being Lapland. As Russia started their maneuvers to reach Kirkenes, the Russian Navy made a daring risk and departed their port in Murmansk, and out into the Barents Sea. However, due to Norway's costal defenses now being stationed with British and American long-range anti-ship missiles on the coastline, the Russians were forced to send their ships further north, which prevented them from supporting the attack on Norway and Lapland, and with the bulk of Russian aircraft diverted to the Polish and Carpathian frontlines, their air support couldn't reach the northern offensive, and Canadian, British, Swedish, Norwegian and remaining Finnish forces managed to push the frontlines back to Lapland, and forced the Russians to focus on defensive lines around the border of Finland and defense lines to Murmansk. Because of huge focus on the Carpathian and Polish frontlines, tensions in the Balkans went unnoticed, and as NATO-member countries, mainly Croatia, Greece, Albania and Montenegro at war with Russia, it managed to gravitate Serbia to join the war on the side of the SMP, and following the 2023 Kosovan clashes, it convinced Serbia that soon, NATO would encircle and force Serbia to capitulate. In turn, Serbia began mobilizing it's army, and this went unnoticed.
Serbian APC during live fire exercises.
Following the mobilization of Serbia's army, the Serbian forces began live-fire exercises, mainly aimed at the Bosnian and Kosovan borders, of which, both Bosnia and Kosovo hadn't joined the war yet, but due to much of the Balkans at war with the SMP, it would be a matter of time until the two would also join. During these live-fire exercises, 2nd Entente reports came in about an influx of trucks and trains approaching the Bosnian border, and these trucks carried cargo that the Serbian government refused to elaborate on, and the influx continued to grow. Some within the Second Entente, mainly Croatian and Albanian leadership realized that the truck and railway shipments were being directed to the Bosnian territory and unrecognized nation of Republika Srpska. Albanian and Bosnian leadership demanded that Serbia suspend the trucks and trains arriving in Republika Srpska and cease their life-fire drills, but Serbia refused, and continued with the drills, with Serbian leader, Aleksandar Vučić sighted that the drills were for protective purposes. Albanian president Bajram Begaj decided that action had to be taken, and he believed that Serbia would target the independent nation of Kosovo, and because of the recent clashes from 2023, Albania decided to send troops into the territory and begin training the little Kosovan Army. Despite protest from Belgrade, Kosovo began drills with Albanian soldiers while Albania would bring in munition and weapon shipments to Kosovo's army to help bolster it's defenses. Because of unresolved tensions with Serbia, NATO and with Kosovo, Serbia launched accusations that Albania was preparing to destabilize Serbia via arming insurgents in their territory. Serbia retaliated by allegedly arming ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo and began harassing Kosovan officials and even Albanian officers. Remaining KFOR forces that remained in Kosovo after the dissolution of the UN were put on high alert by a de-facto Albanian command. Once the live-fire exercises ceased, Serbian forces began clashing in Kosovo with Kosovan Security Forces on the border and Kosovans of both ethnic Serb and Albanians were killed in the crossfire. KFOR forces bounded together with remaining KSF and Albanian forces to beat back Serbian forces, and in turn, Serbia declared war on NATO and with aerial strikes on Pristina, launched armored offensives into Kosovo, brutally beating back the KFOR, Albanian and Kosovan forces, while explosions were heard all over Bosnia and Republika Srpska.
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Trouble in Africa: Libya's Ceasefire Fails and Cracks in the Entente[]
With severe escalation, neutral nations especially in Africa were being pressured to send resources to their cooperative partners and with both the Second Entente and SMP imposing blockades all over and with air and maritime traffic routes being disrupted had also managed to disrupt the trading of resources of all types, including the valuable resource of oil and gas, and both factions deemed it imperative to replace the losses. Even though there was combat present in both West and East Africa, it was only inevitable until the corrosive fighting spread elsewhere in Africa as tensions between the Tripoli and Tobruk governments began to heat up and after the dissolution of the UN, it was clear that the ceasefire was bound to fail. Countries that backed the UN government in Tripoli, mainly Italy, the UK, Turkey and much of the EU would encourage the Tripoli Government to launch new offensives and crush the imposter government in Tobruk. While behind the US' back, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Egypt and the UAE, and neutral countries like Chad and even SMP countries like Syria encouraged Haftar to take a stand against those in Tripoli to help secure oil supply for the war effort.
Pro-Haftar gun truck patrolling Tobruk.
Because of Haftar enjoying support from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and neighboring Egypt, covert troops that were loyal to El-Sisi were deployed to support Haftar, while it was suspected that the UAE funded the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces to once again fight with Haftar on the frontlines. The UAE and Saudi Arabia covertly sent arms and aid to Haftar's forces, while Mediterranean countries of Italy and Spain sent their navies to the Mediterranean to support the Tripoli Government's forces. When the US interrogated the actions of the three Arab countries, they all went under the claims of terrorist activity on the Libyan front and used it as justification for the maneuvering of troops and weapons to Libya. The US was still concerned about the situation and was baffled on either supporting the Tripoli or Tobruk Governments, but maintained a neutrality stance for the time being. Because of the Wagner Group's downscaling and recalling from the frontlines in Libya, Haftar could not rely on professional forces to help upkeep the frontlines, and had to look for other methods to help stabilize the front. Turkey who had major support for the Tripoli Government condemned the escalation on the frontlines and would promise intervention soon for the Tripoli Government. A neutral country that supported Tripoli, Qatar issued further condemnation of the escalation and supported Turkish troops reentering and intervening on the behalf of the Tripoli Government. Qatar instead sent financial support, and managed to increase tensions between the rest of the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia for such actions. The combination of Haftar's army, loyal tribesmen, Egyptian covert forces and the RSF still managed in dealing blows against the Tripoli Government was still forced into defensive lines as Turkish and Tripoli forces dealt blows of their own against Haftar's forces. Even though the UAE was a crucial ally of Haftar, it's heavy focus in Yemen and the frontlines in Iraq, and potential conflict in the Horn of Africa meant that air support was limited and instead relied on drone strikes from bases in Egypt, while Saudi Arabia pumped money for Chadian mercenaries to fight for Haftar.
Downed Turkish drone in the desert.
Even though both were neutral, Chad and Algeria began eying up the conflict as potential risks of intervention and escalation in the general Sahel region as Algeria was already engaged in a low-level Islamist conflict down south, and Chad walking a tightrope as it's neighbors, north, south, west and east begin are either embroiled in war or are preparing for such war, and it didn't help Chad as Niger was at war, tensions in Libya have turned into fighting, destabilization in the CAR was higher than ever, and that Sudan was suspiciously mobilizing for war. While Chad was a case of interest, the cracks began to form inside the Second Entente and the proxy in Libya became the main stage as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt battled against Turkey in indirect combat in Libya and both sides calling for the removal of the other. The US and EU displayed severe hesitance in such decisions. They feared that if Turkey were to be removed, they'd announce neutrality and fight only in Libya or even side with the SMP, with them unaware of Erdogan's collaboration with Putin and the SMP. If Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were removed, it would impact the flow of oil to the Entente, the Entente loses the Suez Canal and Red Sea, and even they all side with Russia and begin pressuring their crucial ally of Israel. Second Entente command was slow in responding to any of these decisions due to the potential reprisals that could come with any response. Following these rifts, the SMP would pay close attention to these cracks and even though Turkey was a link, they continued to try and find more cracks to seep into and exploit. Confusion would run rampant after the Spanish Navy would have a ship harassed during a patrol of the Mediterranean near the Libyan coastline, and while the perpetrator of the attack was still unknown, the incident caused further lobbying of SMP and Entente support for campaigns in Africa. Malta, would eventually join the war out of a security threat due to the escalation on the Libyan frontlines and would unofficially side with the Entente and support Tripoli's Government, as it had done in 2019.
Middle East: Palestinian Vengeance[]
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the little nation of Palestine, still scarred from the aftermath of the Hamas-Israel War was already feeling bitter about the loss of thousands of civilians from the controversial Israeli blockades of Gaza, and the atrocious invasion of Rafah, which left thousands starving, displaced or dead. The Palestinian National Authority, began plotting revenge against Israel. Hamas militants that managed to escape to West Bank, Jihadists and other militias began plotting on another deadly attack that could replicate the 7th of October Surprise Attacks. With covert Iranian support, rockets and other supplies began to arrive into Palestine to prepare for a second vicious attack on Israel. Because of Israel's preoccupations with Hezbollah and Syria, Hamas and the Jihadists would launch the 3rd Intifada against Israel, proclaiming that this time, Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth, once and for all.
Hamas firing rocket salvos against Israel
After the salvos of rockets were launched, a combination of Hamas and Jihadist militants crossed the border into Israel, but this time, were met with heavy resistance along the border of West Bank. Despite the fierce resistance, the missiles launched from West Bank managed to inflict severe infrastructural damage and cause huge amounts of civilian casualties as Israel was becoming depleted of their Iron Dome missiles. However, the Israeli retaliation was far more brutal, as aircraft from the air bases, and artillery lined up would launch counterbattery and air strikes all over Palestine, with Israeli command threatening to "flatten Palestine back to the Cretaceous Period." This would be often compared to Curtis LeMay's quote of bombing them back to the Stone Age, as Israel, after the atrocious war with Hamas in Gaza felt more hellbent on wiping Palestine out completely, regardless of any innocents in the crossfire. Israel would launch counter raids into the West Bank, driving mechanized troops into the Palestinian territory, and was met with civilian resistance, as they threw stones at the Israeli tanks and convoys, and often blocked the paths of the vehicles. Israel responded with fire, gunning down the civilians brutally. This was met with massive condemnation from the Arab League and even from the West. The United States, although a tacit supporter of Israel, pressured the army to end their brutal retaliation against the civilians or risk being cut off from Entente aid. Nevertheless, Israel pressed on, but due to their efforts in Syria and Lebanon, their Palestinian efforts proceeded at a sluggish pace, and began to even stagnate. With another Israeli-Palestinian conflict reaching humanitarian crisis, this created further cracks in the Entente alliance, as some NATO countries and the Gulf States openly condemned Israel's attrition in Palestine, and the escalation that it brought since October 7th.
Convoy of Egyptian troops in Yemen
Elsewhere in Yemen, because of the Arab coalition's efforts in Iraq and Syria, the coalition's own efforts against the Houthi rebels have slowed down to standstill momentum with the occasional drone and missile strikes coming from Sana'a, and with an active presence of US, British, Saudi, Norwegian, Australian and Dutch navies in the Red Sea, the Yemeni front had come to a standstill.