Chernivkan Interim Government

The Chernivkan Interim Government is an alternative government in Cherniv, formed by the main opposition party and militia, the Chernivkan Progressive Party and the Chernivkan Front respectively. It is a multi-party parliamentary regime, with Eduard Chernyak of the CPP acting as Prime Minister. The Interim government controls mainly the south-western regions of Cherniv and claims to be the sole legitimate government on behalf of the Chernivkan opposition in defiance of the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Cherniv. They seek to mainly fight against the Federal Government, who they see to have only upheld the corruption and authoritarianism of the old Republican government, betraying the principles of the 2016 protests that put the Federal Government in their current position in the first place. Though, they have also throughout the course of the Civil War made war with other factions as well, including the Cherniv Salvation Army who they see as a ruthless and authoritarian vestige of the Republican government, and the Uman Brotherhood who they see to be extremist, terroristic fascists. The Interim Government seeks to overthrow the Federal Government to form a more meritocratic, equal and democratic Federal Republic which would not vest its power in the president alone, but rather in the less powerful Prime Minister, who can be held accountable to the legislature.

Facing a corrupt, oligarchic and dysfunctional Republican government and amidst the scattered protests and dissent in late 2015, the CPP had capitalised on this anti-government sentiment and had made parallel critiques of the Republican government within the legislature, much to the support of the people and smaller opposition parties within the legislature. Despite the lack of impact these remarks had to the Republican government, they were still strongly criticised for breaking the party line, especially by the larger Republican coalition to which they were a part of, and the secret arrests of their leaders including then secretary-general Eduard Chernyak had forcibly silenced them for a good while. However, once the secret arrests of opposition leaders were leaked as part of a larger expose against the Republican government in March 2016, the people were further incensed, demanding the release of all political prisoners, particularly Eduard Chernyak. By late March 2016, Eduard Chernyak and the CPP leadership were released in part of the larger Republican effort to alleviate the unrest which had almost grown nationwide. Though having been through political arrest once already, the CPP returned to inciting protests and riots around the nation, with Chernyak being seen as a freedom fighter. The CPP officially withdrew from the Republican coalition, providing scathing remarks against the Republicans, and would also convince many other smaller parties to do the same including the then main opposition party, United Cherniv Party, and would form a new coalition under the United Cherniv Party along with the parties who had withdrew called the Cherniv National Coalition. With the United Cherniv Party leading the political battle against the Republicans, the CPP focused its efforts among the masses, leading protests in the name of the CNC to bring down the corrupt Republican government, even occasionally being beaten and shot at by the Republican government alongside the protesters, who had started cracking down on such protests.
By June 2016, the anger and dissent the CPP had stirred up in the people led to protesters storming a police station after security forces had shot and killed 8 demonstrators at a funeral ceremony a few days prior, after which the protesters were able to gain access to arms and ammunition, with only the CPP preventing all-out shooting against the Republicans. The popular appeal of the CNC, greatly aided by the CPP, allowed for many Chernivkan National Army personnel and other security forces to defect, which only compounded the popular and armed support of the CNC. In November 2016, the pressure was too much on the Republican government, causing President Kovacs and his Republican cabinet to step down, with what was left of the Republican coalition dissolving. Being the largest and only coalition left in the legislature, the CNC took to call for a snap election, in which the United Cherniv Party won a slim majority of the vote, with the CPP being the first runners up and the main opposition party. The new President Mravinsky amends the constitution and dissolves the Chernivkan People's Republic and forms the Federal Republic of Cherniv on 15 November 2016, much to the support of the CPP as well.
However, the Federal Government started passing many laws, even vetoing those that were voted down in parliament, that seemed to directly contradict what the CNC used to fight for; blocking off a planned resolution to downsize and reform the bureaucracy, vetoing to keep the old Republican governmental pension fund that was promised to be returned to the people, extending the security powers of the executive branch, and even reappointing civil servants directly from the Republican government. The most extreme act was to veto the Speaker of Parliament who was initially meant to be Eduard Chernyak, and replacing him for an unaffiliated, ex-Republican party member. Nonetheless, the CPP still kept faith in the Federal Government and appeased the many people who were willing to jump at the opportunity for dissent. However, the mistrust against the Federal Government had set into the parties, with the banning of the Communist Party of Cherniv being dissented by the CPP for its undemocratic nature.
By January 2017, the many slights of the Federal Government against their promises to the people were too much for the people and the CPP to bear. The Federal Government had seemingly did an about turn, not only excusing but even openly supporting the old Republican systems, so much so that citizens and the CPP started to question the legitimacy of the 2016 election. Hidden documents and communications between the current Federal Government and the Republican government that were released alluded to agreements made directly prior to and after the 2016 election, which only gave further weight to these sentiments. Shortly after, the CPP announced its split from the CNC and declares the 2016 election results void, to which other smaller parties followed suit. Disappointed in the failure of the CNC, the CPP leadership retreated into internal committee conferences with other allied parties as to decide the road forward.
Their planning was quickly put to an end when the Federal Government sent security forces to shut down the CPP and CPP-affiliated offices and branches, even closing down press offices who attempted to report the Federal Government's actions. The CPP leadership was able to escape the Federal crackdown, and through their popular support and goodwill with the people, was successfully smuggled into the southern regions of Cherniv. With security forces publicising the Federal Government's desire to find the CPP leadership, and the increasing fervour of the people willing to rally around the CPP, they chose to rebel against the Federal Government. Returning to their roots, they would covertly increase their popularity among regions such as Aber, Zalaniv, and Zinkov to much success. Even with the threat of arrest, some sympathetic defected officers had fled south to rejoin the CPP, who would stir up enough dissent to lead an armed revolt in strongly opposition areas in early May 2017. The reunion with sympathetic military officers allowed for a greater supporter base, with whole units and supply runs going "AWOL" from the Federal army, with enough arms and supplies as to fully arm the many militias at the ready to wage war against the Federal Government. The CPP, emboldened by their successes, would then increasingly show their presence in public. The defected army officers planned for a large offensive which would solidify the opposition areas within their grasp, and enacted it at the end of May 2017, shocking the few garrisoned security forces in the southern regions when large numbers of armed civilian militias rose up and demanded them to disarm. Such a sudden uprising caught the Federal Government by surprise, and they were unable to adequately react to what they only expected as dissent against their policies. The defected army officers, seeing the success of their admittedly ambitious uprising, announced the formation of the Chernivkan Front, a united military front comprised of ex-Chernivkan National Army personnel, citizen militias, and smaller anti-government rebel groups on 29 July 2017. At the insistence and behest of the Chernivkan Front ever since July 2017, the CPP and their allies consolidated and ratified the creation of the Chernivkan Interim Government, with Eduard Chernyak publicly announcing its formation on 23 August 2017 as a political counterpart to the Chernivkan Front. The first Cherniv National Congress voted in Eduard Chernyak as Prime Minister, with a mixed coalition making up the legislation. At its closing, Prime Minister Chernyak announced the aims of the Interim Government in no lesser words: to overthrow the openly traitorous President Mravinsky and the current Federal Government, and to reinstate a fairer, more balanced parliamentary system that serves the people.
The formation of the Interim government aroused the attention of the Federal Government, who increased logistical support to pro-government rebels who fought on their behalf, occasionally indirectly coercing the poor ethnic minority communities in the regions to fight simply due to the possibility of gaining more resources for their already impoverished communities. The Interim Government took proactive steps to prevent this war of hearts and minds, actively campaigning and giving direct aid to communities where they can through welfare support, subsidised education and food drives. The Interim Government was able to gain considerable ground and widen their sphere of influence thanks to these measures, which only further turned the Federal Government against them.

Eventually in September 2017, the Federal Government had managed to pass emergency powers and gathered up enough of a military response to intervene in the rebellion in the south through Operation Swift Wind, which was a brutal push into the major cities and towns controlled by the Interim Government, who were not fully prepared for military intervention of this extent. Though much ground was lost in the initial days of the Operation, with the Federal Government even pushing into the Zarelsk region, the Interim Government reorganised and coordinated a defensive alongside the mobilization of citizen militias behind Federal lines which successfully stopped the Federal Government's salient push. Over the next 2 months into November 2017, the Interim forces repelled the Federal forces effectively back to the Mirne-Smolyanka coastline, forming a defensive perimeter along the coastline that Federal troops were unable to push past. Though this would be a victory for the Interim Government, it was nonetheless a costly one, with many lives lost and fractured minority communities littering what used to be the frontlines of both sides. There were also reports of warcrimes done to those minority communities who were captured by the Interim forces, severely punishing those who had supposedly fed information to the Federal forces through brutal honor killings, plundering and arson; though these rumors were never officially recognised by the Interim Government.
Tensions rose again on 12 November 2017 when the Atov Federation was formed, solidifying Federal influence on the southern regions perpetually through the active collaboration between pro-government rebels and the Federal Government; with Interim frontline troops on high alert expecting another strike from the newly united Atov forces. Thankfully, no attack was carried out, and the stalemate at the coast would continue.
In December 2017, the tenuous border situation in the east with the informal Pozna Military District came to blows when the 7th Pozna Battalion and other ex-Chernivkan National Army personnel, led by General Onyshenko, would declare its independence as the Cherniv Salvation Army, who had declared war against both the Federal and Interim governments. Border troops of the junta would preemptively strike at the unprepared Interim forces, who had quickly returned the skirmish in kind, though due to the mountainous terrain such border skirmishes were kept small and sparse, with the junta focusing on amassing a force against the Federal Government instead. The constant need for troops at the coastline also meant that the ethnic communities, largely made up of Cossacks, would not be able to live in peace, with the garrisons directly north of them and incoming lines of logistics, new Interim soldiers and supplies that they could have used being sent past them into the frontlines. Such discontent with who they saw to equally be occupiers only further grew with the increasingly fiery rhetoric of the Cossack Workers Party, a pro-Cossack, pro-minority party which used to be a moderate, fringe party of the Interim Government's coalition. It was only later discovered that the CWP had been working together with the much more radical secessionist Cherniv Cossack Council both in Interim and Federal-held territories to unite the various ethnic minorities, chiefly the Cossacks, into somewhat decentralised militias who all sook secession from the Federal Government and the formation of a Cossack state. Eventually, in end December 2017 the CWP and the CCC jointly declared the formation of the Chernivkan Democratic Forces who would comprise of the Free Cossacks Army controlling the Eastern regions and the Valkyrie Female Fighters controlling the Western regions, turning large areas of land on both Federal and Interim sides into hostile territory for their troops. The Interim forces immediately sook to withdraw their forces, especially those now left stranded along the Mirne-Smolyanka coastline.
The western VFF held regions of the CDF were neutral towards the Interim forces, shortly contacting the Interim Government and allowing them to withdraw to a mutually agreed-to border along the Norikala-Vorkushin regions, signing a neutrality pact on behalf of the CDF. The appearance of the CDF was perhaps for the best, having a somewhat neutral buffer state between them and the Federal Government which prevented the worst of the war to drag on, along with bolstering their forces along the shared border along Berestiya with the junta.

The borders remained otherwise neutral throughout January until 1 February 2018, where a series of car bombs went off around many urban regions of the CDF-FCA, and the city of Berezno and the greater Smolyanka region was besieged and subsequently captured by the Uman Brotherhood. Led by Ivan "Batko" Uman, they had declared a splinter state within the CDF by declaring the start of what they called "Operation Vengeance", whose aim was to fight against the CIG and the Federal Government, and anyone who would stand in their way including the CDF and the CSA. They were allegedly influenced by the increasingly xenophobic, religiously extremist, authoritarian rhetoric of Ivan Uman, an ethnic Cossack, who further riled up the many mountain communities of the Smolyanka region who were hit heavily not only by the back and forth warring between the Federal Government and CIG back in the latter half of 2017, but also by the sudden loss of security by the sudden unilateral declaration of secession by the CDF. The Interim Government's now shared border along Surilsk-Vorkushin is now a hotbed of terrorist and insurgent activity, with the southern-most region of Vorkushin being shared between 3 mutually hostile factions, with the CIG to the north-west, the Brotherhood in the north-east, and the junta in the south.