Continuation War

Continuation War
Clockwise from top: Air defences intercept drones over Dabrolevo; Ravkan soldiers dismount from their vehicle; Acrean troops throw grenades while assaulting a trench; Ravkan artillery outside of Svaslock; An Acrean bomber flies over the border towards Drazhinskiya; Drahzin infantry during the initial invasion.
Date 6 March 2021 – 12 November 2022 (1 year, 8 months, 6 days) Location Tsernova Drazhinskiya Ravka Result Koszalin Armistice Territorial changes Drazhinskiya occupies the majority of the Tsernova region
Belligerents
Coalition Ravka Acrea Ossoria Auroa Supported by:	Drazhinskiya Supported by: Svinia
Commanders and leaders
Andrij Matviyenko Aleksy Rosiak Dmytro Velychko Kasandra Rajkowska Mateusz Vyhovsky Emma Valen Eirik Stordalen Einar Rask Rikke Valle Erich von Rohr Mikael Vernier	Zdzislava Hryc Chaslaŭ Rasolka Alaksandr Biarizkin Ryhor Taraškievič Valera Konan
Units involved
Coalition Ravkan Armed Forces Acrean Armed Forces Ossorian Armed Forces Auroan Defence Forces	Drazhinskiyan Defense Forces
Strength
Peak Strength 1,800,000 1,200,000 300,000	Peak Strength 2,500,000
Casualties and losses
238,496 killed, 581,240 wounded 70,407 killed, 248,221 wounded 32,649 killed, 94,947 wounded 5,078 killed, 25,234 wounded	409,697 killed ~1 million wounded

The Continuation War (Ravkan: Продовження війни, tr. Prodovzhennya vijny); Drazhinskiyan: Працяг вайны, tr. Pratsyag vajny), also called the Second Tsernovan War, was an armed conflict fought between Ravka and Drazhinskiya between March 2021 and November 2022. The war's immediate cause lays in the aftermath of the the Treaty of Nice imposed on Drazhinskiya following the 2015 Midsummer War, during which Ravkan and Acrean forces occupied the majority of the border region of Tsernova; as part of the terms of the treaty, Drazhinskiya ceded most of Tsernova to Ravka. Though both Drazhinskiya and Ravka maintain longstanding claims to Tsernova, made on both economic and ethnopolitical grounds (in spite of the historical ethnolinguistic diversity of the region), contention over Tsernova is widely regarded as an extension of the wider political and ideological enmity between the two. After its defeat in 2015, Drazhinskiya entered a period of political upheaval which saw the ruling Free Assembly coalition replaced by the popular National Union Conference. Although the NUC rose to power on a wave of support for its revanchist ideology, the possibility of another conflict in the near future was not seriously raised until tensions in the region sharply rose following the passage of the Zastavna Acts by the Ravkan parliament on 21 February, 2020. Also referred to as the "Reclamation Acts" in Drazhinskiya, the laws began the official process of administratively and legally incorporating the Ravkan-occupied territories of Tsernova into Ravka proper. They laws sparked heated reactions in Drazhinskiya, inflaming the unresolved tensions between the two states. Offician Drazhin protests did little to dissuade the Ravkan government. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing gradually increased as tensions between Drazhinskiya and its eastern neighbours worsened over the following year. The failure of the Ravkan government to respond to Drazhinskiyan concerns, as well as the revanchist undertones the NUC's political ideology was built on, are frequently credited as factors which made the eventual outbreak of conflict inevitable.

Drazhinskiya launched an invasion of Ravkan-occupied Tsernova in March 2021. The attack proper was preceded by several weeks of minor skirmishes as the frequency of encounters between Drazhin and Ravkan forces along the border increased with the military buildup over January and February. The initial invasion was highly successful, and Drazhinskiyan forces achieved major victories in central Tsernova, though Drazhin forces in the north were initially stalled by Ravkan-Acrean forces in the urban buildup of the Bozuk and Makhovka metropolitan areas. Over the next couple months, Ravkan-Acrean forces gradually withdrew east, with Drazhin forces eventually occupying nearly all of central and southern Tsernova and managing to advance into Ravka before being exhausted. A brief Ravkan-Acrean counteroffensive in late summer reversed some of these gains and pushed the Drazhin out of Ravka, but by September major fighting petered out as both sides dug in in preparation for winter. Following Drazhinskiyan strikes into Acrea in May, Ossoria and Auroa joined the war as part of separate mutual defence pacts with Acrea. Negotiations between Drazhin and Ravkan-Acrean diplomats for a peace agreement began in January with Górska acting as the mediating party; against this backdrop, Drazhinskiya launched multiple offensives over the winter but was unable to move the front. It remained deadlocked until June, when a coalition counteroffensive was launched in northern Tsernova and made slow, grinding progress throughout the summer, eventually retaking most of the territory lost in that sector in the first months of the war. A simultaneous offensive to the north of Svaslock was launched in early July, but failed to achieve similar results before both offensives halted in late September. The fighting subsided with an armistice signed in Koszalin, Górska in early November, though negotiations for a lasting peace agreement are still ongoing.

Official figures from all belligerents record a combined total of 752,327 military deaths, with a further 1.97 million wounded, and an additional 520,841 civilian casualties, marking the Continuation War as the deadliest conflict in Eracura since the Great Eracuran War. The high civilian toll of the war is attributed to a combination of heavy urban fighting and collateral damage from missile strikes, drone strikes, and bombing in Drazhinskiya and Ravka. The war caused significant disruption to international markets and in particular international travel; most airspace over central Eracura was closed due to risk for the duration of the war. Tsernova continued to suffer heavily after the end of fighting; in addition to environmental damage, massive amounts of territory remains contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance.

The Continuation War was marked by its largely static nature, high levels of attrition, and a slow operational tempo. The conflict prominently featured extensive trench warfare in a variety of terrain, widespread missile strikes and bombing, and the prolific use of drones and artillery. Observers have noted the war's conditions to be an evolution of those seen in the Zemplen War, driven by technological and economic advances over the decade thereafter, and an abrupt turn from expectations set by the Midsummer War.

Background

Since the middle ages, Tsernova has been disputed by successive Drazhi and Ravkan regimes. It serves as the home to a number of ethnic groups; purely ethnic Tsernovans make up the majority, with a significant minority of mixed Tsernovan-Ravkan and Drazhi populations accounting for another 30% of the population. It has long been prized for its strategic and economic value; an abundance of black soil and wide expanses of grassland make southern Tsernova ideal for agriculture, while ample minerals and other natural resources supported the rapid growth of industry and urbanisation in the north. Strategically, Tsernova sits at the southern end of the Reschen Valley (Gothic: Reschental), which has served as the the primary north-south route through the Weiss Tauern mountains into Acrea for millennia. Ownership over Tsernova is historically fluid but has traditionally favoured Ravka. In 1831, the entirety of the territory was ceded to Drazhinskiya as war concessions. It was recaptured in 1945, after being reoccupied by Ravka during the Great Eracuran War.

The First Tsernovan War brought the issue of Tsernova to international prominence. The outbreak of violence between Drazhisnkiya and Ravka in May 1968 came during a period of post-Great War detente between their respective close allies of Svinia and Acrea, where skeptical elements of both governments threatened to undo over a decade of diplomatic work towards reconciliation. The fighting was brief but bloody and destructive; a ceasefire was negotiated in September under fierce Acrean and Svinian pressure. The treaty that followed in December divided the territory roughly in half between the two states, and established the status quo that lasted until 2015.

Combatants and international support

Syara

Syara declared its neutrality in the conflict shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. On 9 March 2021 Executive of Syara Anita Beleska urged a cessation of hostilities and offered to negotiate a ceasefire. Public polling of the Syaran populace in April 2021 saw broad majority support for Drazhinskiya, but also marked strong opposition to Syaran involvement in the conflict. Despite statements of neutrality reported talks were held between the Syaran and Drazhinskiyan governments in early winter 2021 allegedly discussing Syaran aid to Drazhinskiya. On 22 December Minister of Foreign Affairs Radovan Kostović confirmed that Syara would supply Drazhinskiya with lethal aid, namely artillery shells, explosives, and ammunition for small arms and armored fighting vehicles.

Between January and July 2022 Syara reportedly supplied Drazhinskiya with 1.5 million artillery shells, 325 million rounds of small arms ammunition, more than 35,000 tons of explosive materials, 350,000 land mines, 1,200 surface-to-air missiles, 225 armored vehicles (mostly engineering vehicles, mine laying and clearing equipment, and similar), 4,600 trucks and utility vehicles, 6,000 unmanned aerial vehicles, 650 towed artillery pieces, and an undisclosed quantity of cluster munitions, fuel-air explosives, counter-battery radar systems, and precision guided munitions. In exchange, Syara reportedly received sizeable quantities of phosphates, industrial chemicals, rare earth metals, and semiconductors for an undisclosed amount of money. Syaran support was reportedly enough to outfit 36 artillery battalions, or 12 artillery regiments. Syaran support also allegedly consisted of intelligence gathering and surveillance.

In summer 2023 negotiations were reportedly underway between Zovahr and Dabrolevo regarding payment for Syaran deliveries. According to sources a diplomatic row had developed regarding Syaran demands for payment, with a unnamed spokesperson for the Drazhinskiyan government reportedly stated that the Commonality had exploited the war to "fleece the Drazhinskiyan people for money". Both governments denied the rumors and insisted that discussions were just to finalize details of loan repayments and potentially returning unused equipment and supplies.

Erania

After the outbreak of violence, Erania declared its support for Ravka and Acrea. Humanitarian and military aid was announced the same day with widespread support. Drazhi strikes into Acrea itself only a few weeks into the war prompted the question of Erania joining the conflict under the mutual defence terms of the Treaty of Avtalyon, the agreement signed between Acrea and Erania establishing the latter's independence in 1990.