Second Yugoslav War (1983: Doomsday)

The Second Yugoslav War is the second major war to hit former Yugoslavia in the last three decades, following fighting in the First Yugoslav War shortly after Doomsday. It began on November 10th, 2011, with the Serbian invasions of Bosnia and Macedonia, following months of heightened tensions and incidents after the Coup of June 15th, 2011.

Invasions
On November 10th, in the early hours of the morning, Serbian forces crossed the border with Bosnia in two separate locations - northeast of the Croatian city of Mostar, and north of the city of Zenica - easily brushing aside Bosnian forces, in pursuit of what they claimed were rebels that the Bosnians were harboring.

Within an hour, over in Macedonia, Serbian forces crossed the border as well, in three places, also claiming to be in pursuit of rebels. Heading southwards from the towns of Lipjan and Vladičin Han, columns of Serbian armor broke through the outnumbered Macedonian forces at the border by mid-afternoon, and with infantry on their flanks, advanced southwards. Further west, Serbian infantry, supported by heavy artillery, attacked from near the Serbian city of Podgorica, heading southeast around Lake Skadar in the direction of the city of Shkodër.

In all five locations, while the better trained Macedonians and Bosnians gave more than they took, numbers held the field, and the Serbs pressed them all backwards. Albanian forces, arriving northwest of Shkodër on the 12th, did help to slow that advance somewhat.

Sources referred to the offensives as being referred to as "Operation Lazar" by the Serbs.

Serbian diplomats presented, almost at the same time as the offensives, documents which claim that Bosnia and Macedonia had both sponsored rebellions inside Serb territory, harbored terrorists, and attacked over the borders in support of them as well. It remains to be seen how truthful these claims are, though both Bosnia and Macedonia deny them vigorously. These allegations have caused many to be neutral on the matter.

Macedonian Front
Reeling from the initial assault, along with moves by Serbian nationalists behind their lines, it took Macedonian troops a week on the Macedonian Front to mount a major defense. On the 18th, near the village of Bibaj, where the valley started to get smaller, the first major counterattack was launched on the Western prong, as it was less than fifty kilometers from the capital, through mountain passes.

While initially successful, retaking the both the village, and parts of the nearby town of Ferizai, it soon proved to have overreached itself. The lead elements found themselves low on fire support, and were pushed back to the village. By the next morning, they found themselves forced back even further than they had been when they had started the attack, to the village of Topojan. It had failed because it had been rushed. Yet, it did manage one thing: it bought enough time for defenses to be set up further south, in the mountains, primarily around the city of Kacanik.

The eastern prong of the attack, while much further away from the Macedonian centers of power, also faced an easier route geographically, along with less opposition - Macedonian reinforcements were first directed to the more urgent western attack. By the time the counter-attack in the west had failed, Serbian forces in this prong had taken the city of Vranje.

The fall of Vranje saw the eastern prong of the offensive moving into flatter territory. With that, its advance began to speed up, as the Macedonians continued to concentrate their forces northwest of the capital. By the end of November, they had captured the village of Bukarevac, just north of the pre-1983 borders of the Yugoslav region of Macedonia.

Serbian advance units ran into the Kacanik defenses on the 23rd, amidst heavy fighting. Bristling with bunkers, the area stopped the Serbian armor dead in its tracks, forcing them to bring up artillery and troops to clear the area. Once again using their numbers to their advantage, the Serbs preceded to collapse or shoot their way through the city, taking heavy casualties. By the 30th, they had managed to clear their way through the city. However, that had allowed the Macedonians the time to fortify, to some degree, the passes southwards.

Seeing somewhat the overall situation, the Macedonian High Command pulled back some of their forces from the area between the prongs of the Serbian offensive. While this did abandon some of their citizens to the Serbians, they had little choice: Had they not done so, the troops would have been at great risk of being surrounded and useless to them. From their previous positions south of the Serbian city of Kamenice - which they had been raiding - they pulled back to the town of Remnik, near the old border, and in a more defensible area. Here, they could be used for attacking the spearheads, or retreat further if needed.

December saw the Macedonians hurriedly attempting to fortify both the city of Kumanovo, south of the eastern line of advance, and the passes northwest of the capital. On the 27th, the Serbian advance arrived at Kumanovo, which by year's end, they had surrounded and began to assault the city. About half of the armor attached to the attack remained committed to the advance, securing Ljubrdrag on the 31st.

Near the capital, despite the growing dominance of the skies by the Macedonian Air Force and winter snows, Serb units kept up their advance, blowing their way through the defenses with heavy casualties. The end of December saw them just north of the town of Orman, on the verge of breaking out into the ground north of Skopje.

Bosnian Front
Northeast of Mostar, Serbian forces headed advanced northwards, initially. After taking the town of Konjic on the afternoon of the 12th, the advancing troops swung northeastwards towards Sarajevo. As they got closer, more and more Bosnian forces were thrown at them, until Serbian forces launched an attack on the city itself from the east on the 22nd, taking great care to avoid the Turkish base at Semizovac, just north of the city, and to thus avoid inflaming the barely-neutral Sultanate. Forces from southwest of the city entered its suburbs in that area on the 25th, becoming bogged down in the urban environment, alongside Serbian forces in the eastern suburbs, quite rapidly.

North of Zenica, Serbian troops advanced southwards, taking the city on the 15th. From there, they turned southeast, with the goal of cutting off northeastern Bosnia from the capital and the western parts of the nation - and to allow them to secure the city of Tuzla, the second largest one in Bosnia. By the end of November, they had reached Serbian territory near the village of Homar and cut the area off, starting to squeeze it out of existence.

December saw the Serbians pressing their attack into Sarajevo, and squeezing the Tuzla pocket. Taking great care, of course, to not endanger, remotely, supply lines to the Turkish base. In eastern Sarajevo, Serbian infantry had advanced within sight of the Presidential Palace, securing much of the Old parts of the city. In the southwest, they secured the suburbs of Blazuj, Ilidza, and Stup, and infested the main airport, where Bosnian soldiers doggedly held on to the main terminals. To the north, at the pocket, Serbian forces moved inwards, to Bosnian defense lines both north and east of Tuzla, and had breached their defenses in the more mountainous areas south of the city. Through efforts by the Macedonian Air Force, and relief efforts from Croatia, the pocket managed to keep supplied, though barely and with heavy rationing.

Yet, in the west, around the city of Travnik, Bosnian forces were gathering their forces for a counterattack. While not much, they hoped it would relive some pressure on both the capital and the northern pocket.

Albanian Front
Quickly seizing the border post on Lake Skadar, Serbian forces began to fan out around the northern side of the lake. On the southern edges, marines launched raids from the area around the Serbian naval base at Ulcinj, and Serbian vessels sparred with Macedonian ones off the coast, along with bombarding coastal settlements.

Within a week, Serbian forces had seized most of the coastline of the lake, up to the town of Grilë in the north, and the village of Zogaj in the south. Macedonian forces, having been reinforced by troops from Albania on the 12th, were slowing the Serbs down, but remained outnumbered and were falling back to Shkodër, and establishing defensive positions there - and preparing for a siege.

On the 23rd, Serbian forces south of the lake reached the Bojana River, within sight of Shkodër's suburbs. In the north, they had gotten to the village of Shtoj, 2 kilometers from the city. They also moved into the mountains east of the lake somewhat, though largely only to secure their flank.

Despite the access points over the Bojana being destroyed or secured by Macedonian troops, Serbian forces used a pontoon bridge near the village of Zues, and crossed the river on the 25th. Rapidly advancing to the Drin River, they found themselves unable to cross it, in the face of the guns stationed in the city. And, in the north, the Serbs also secured control over the last major road out of the city, by taking the town of Skanderbeg.

By December 5th, Serbian forces had reached the village of Kuc on the Drin, rendering the efforts of the troops in the city to keep forces south of the river from crossing it moot. Shkodër became surrounded - however, this was unexpected, as Serbian generals had expected it to fall easily. They would be forced to take the city in order to secure their supply lines.

With the start of the siege, most Serbian forces had to remain stationary around the city. Those forces not needed for this concentrated their efforts on securing the remainder of the region around the city, and bridging the Drin to make their lines more fluid. Both tasks were accomplished by the 12th. South of the area where the rivers joined together, the Serbs then advanced further, in order to give themselves a more defensible position, along a rough line from the town of Mjede, east of Shkodër on the Drin, and the coastal town of Baks-Rrjolle, just east of a large marshy area.

And on the 20th, from near the town of Luke, Serbian troops launched another small offensive southwards, in order to reclaim the small region of Montenegro around the town of Brezojevica taken by the Macedonians years before. By the end of the year, they had secured the area and begun to fortify it.

Macedonian Front
On January 3rd, after a lull because of a storm, Serbian units broke through the last Macedonian defenses before their Skopje lines, at the town of Orman.

Primarily directing their efforts southwest, they managed to cut off the main western access road to the city by the 6th, amidst the heaviest resistance seen yet. As a result of this direction their forces failed completely to advance at all into the city itself, and found themselves caught at the suburb of Butel.

In the east, after taking slightly longer to get back on the offensive, Serbian armor began advancing southwest once again from Ljubrdrag. January 7th saw them secure the town of Stajkovci, in an obvious effort to cut off the main roads to the east of the city. Yet, they also slightly overstretched themselves in the process, and over-extended their lines, with only one flank, against mountains, at all secure.

Knowing that all would likely be lost if the two forces met up, the Macedonians launched their main armored counterattack on the eastern prong on the 8th. Attacking towards the town of Orlanci, right against the mountains, their goal was to cut off the pincer from Serbia itself.

The attack, since the Serbs had moved almost all of their forces to concentrate their attack, met great success. Within six hours, they secured the town, and cut off the enemy armor.

West of the city, the offensive continued to stall, grinding its way slowly through the edges of the suburbs, amid fanatical resistance.

Alarmed at the success of the counterattack, the Serbs immediately counter-attacked the Macedonian thrust. However, their earlier enthusiasm now bit them on the rear, hard: the Serbian armor ran out of fuel. As a result, Macedonian armor cut them to pieces - however, at the same time, most of the soldiers in the Serbian group managed to cut through Macedonian lines and escape.

A third of the Macedonian armor, now with the advantage, began to pursue the retreating Serbian forces. The rest moved west, rushing headlong into the Serbian attacks there, which by then were at the river in places.

By the 10th, they had forced them back, almost to the mountains. However, the terrain now became unfavorable to armor, and as a result meant that it took until the 15th for Macedonian forces to take back the entrance to the pass near Orman.

As the counterattack in the west ground down, more and more forces were moved from the eastern attack to support it. The Serbs continued to pull back, however, abandoning Kumanovo on the 13th. Overall, the attack began to lose steam. They did, however, manage to force the Serbians back to the town of Car, just over the old border, before they were stopped there on the 17th. And from there, the area became a mere sideshow compared to operations further west.

By the 18th, the Macedonians had furthered their counterattack, reaching a point two miles north of Orman, where the Serbians halted it. Both sides settled down, having exhausted themselves for the time being.

Yet, that same day, due to an agreement with the Greeks, the Macedonians began to move forces northwards from the Greek border - fresh troops, wanting blood.

On the 21st, these forces arrived at the front. Using these fresh troops, the Macedonian commanders launched another assault on the Serbian positions, again primarily directed at the mountain passes, though with some effort made in the east as well.

The attack proved to be successful, though higher in casualties than would have been liked, something which made sense in light of the number of Serbians that had originally died to take the passes from the Macedonian Army mere weeks before. As a result, progress was slow, with the attack recapturing Hani i Elezit on the 24th, Kacanik on the 28th, and Sopot on the 30th, before being halted, exhausted, at the town of Grebno on the 2nd.

Slightly further east, Macedonian forces that had earlier been forced to pull back to Remnik in order to avoid being surrounded, sprung on the Serbians as well. Unexpectedly, they met far less resistance than expected, and were able to advance more than planned, before their supply lines and Serb troops forced their halt. In fact, they even managed to cross the pre-war border slightly, managing to secure the city of Kamenice. Normally, they would have been forced back once more to avoid getting surrounded, but the easternmost forces also made progress.

At the easternmost areas of the front, using the largest amount of armor moved northwards, for the terrain met it better here, they smashed a hole in the Serbian lines, as well. However, low fuel supplies meant that the advance was rather slow, and when more rough terrain was encountered the Serbs were able to stop the attack, near the town of Korbevac, on the 31st.

Taking advantage of the Macedonians overextending themselves slightly, the Serbians launched an attack of their own in the east on the 3rd of February. From its starting point south of Korbevac, the Serbs managed to take back Vranje before halting the next day.

On the 8th, in an effort to secure more of the local road network, the Macedonians launched a small attack to the north of Grebno. Directed towards Ferizaj, and coming from the south and the east, it managed in its goals. By the 10th, they had secured the road in question, on the southern edge of the town, and managed decent positions in the town center as well.

Serb forces launched another counterattack on the 11th, against Kamenice. Fighting through the city, and having to destroy the city center to push out the Macedonians, they secured its southern environs by the 16th. The attack continued another day, until it halted at the town of Koretin.

At the same time, on the 15th, the Macedonians launched another assault in Ferizaj, attempting to secure the rest of the city. While they made steady progress on the eastern, flatter, edges of the city, in the west a combination of slightly worse terrain, and very heavy resistance from the area around the city's main stadium, meant that little progress was made. The attack was halted on the 20th, having secured only about 300m in the west, and about 650 m in the east - most of that side of the city.

Serbian armor attempted a push south from Vranje on the 25th, aiming to break the Macedonian defenses. However, after the loss of a half-dozen armored vehicles in the first hour, they halted the attack.

These moves were rather typical of the next few weeks - both sides launched such attacks a number of times, attempting to gain some sort of position. About the only real gains occurred in Ferizaj on March 7th, when the Macedonians secured the stadium that had been frustrating them, and on March 10th, when the Serbs took Ribnice, south of Vranje. In effect, the front stalemated.

Bosnian Front
On January 4th, the Bosnians launched their counteroffensive from Travnik, towards Zenica.

As their preparations had been fairly obvious, the Serbs were fairly ready for them. However, they were still not able to prevent the Bosnians from gaining ground.

By the 7th, the Bosnians had managed to retake Zenica, though Serbian resistance beyond that meant that they got no further than that. However, it had the intended effect: in order to counter it, the Serbs had to move troops from near Sarajevo, and in the areas around Tuzla, giving both sites some breathing room.

On the 10th, Serb forces attacked the new Bosnian positions at Zenica. While the Bosnians held a good position, and a very defensible on at that, they were still outnumbered. Within days, they were forced to begin to withdraw back to Travnik, stopping and entrenching about halfway between the two cities.

The week of reduced enemy forces allowed the Bosnians time to reinforce, and to build more defenses, at the capital and Tuzla. When the Serbs had moved their forces back into place and renewed the attack at both sites on the 16th, they found renewed opposition, and barely made any progress, even being forced back a small distance in some spots.

Yet, by the 20th, they had begun to advance faster once again. And were it not for events elsewhere, this would have been horrible for the Bosnians.

A deal between the Greeks and Macedonians meant that the Macedonians, with an influx of fresh troops, launched another series of counterattacks on the Serbians. In order to deal with this, the Serbs were forced to pull out troops in Bosnia to shore up the other fronts.

In doing so, their attacks had to largely stop - allowing the Bosnians another chance to move against them.

Their last effort having been largely futile, and despite it being where they would have preferred to attack, Bosnian forces instead attacked much further southeast, north of the Turkish base. Here, the Serbian lines were a bit weaker, and the attack, launched on the 28th, made some progress. At the same time, forces in the Tuzla pocket launched a small attack, as well.

Both attacks were directed along a road that ran between the area of the Turkish base in the south, and the town of Kladanj in the north - with the goal of securing the road, and breaking the encirclement, at least temporarily. And, on February 8th, they succeeded, with the two forces linking up at the village of Krivajevići.

However, this success was almost overshadowed by a small defeat in Sarajevo, where Serbian forces took advantage of the distraction to overwhelm the remainder of the defenders at the main airport terminal on the 9th.

Serbian forces counterattacked the small land line into the pocket on the 13th. Yet, they failed, and the Bosnians narrowly managed to hold them off. And the Bosnians themselves launched a small counterattack in Sarajevo a day later, yet not towards the airport - a good move, considering that the cratered airport had been useless for months. Rather, they moved against Serb forces east of the Presidential Palace, which President Silajdžić had refused to leave, despite the danger, since the initial attacks. And, in this, they had success as well, forcing the Serbs away from the Palace and back to the edges of the old city by the time it petered out on the 18th.

On the 23rd, the Serbs launched another attack against the small passage to the Tuzla pocket. This time, however, they met with success, and managed to sever the connection three days later, following a series of back and forth engagements, in which sections of the road changed hands as much as eight times.

The passage had achieved most of its goals, however - large amounts of supplies were brought into the pocket, wounded were brought out, and men were rotated in and out of the area, giving the commanders inside it fresh troops for the first time in weeks.

Yet, at the same time, both the attack in eastern Sarajevo and the funneling of resources into the pocket did not occur without cost. The concentration allowed the Serb units occupying the airport the chance to move further northwards on the 20th, where they seized several residential districts - long evacuated, of course - and advanced to the Miljacka River, where they were forced to halt on March 1st.

On March 13th, Serb forces once again began to press the pocket hard, form all sides. On the 15th, they secured the town of Srebrenik, in the northwest area of the pocket - followed by Kladanj in the southeast on the 18th.

Knowing that they had to do something, the Bosnians launched an series of attacks at the Serb lines between the pocket and the rest of their territory, moving from Semizovac and Travnik, from the 20th to the 28th. From Semizovac, they managed to get through the mountains as far as Olovo before having to halt - but from Travnik, while they still failed to get through the mountains, being halted at Nemila, they managed something that worked nearly as well as outright relief. They managed to cut the Serb troops in Zenica off from the rest of their forces. As a result, the Serbs had to halt their attacks further north, in order to relive their own pocketed force.

Yet, unlike the Tuzla pocket, these forces had no outside or internal support. Or even much food, for that matter. Within days, the Serb force began to break down, despite the Serbian offensive to relive it. On April 2nd, despite the offensive having reached a point less than five miles away, the surrounded soldiers were forced to surrender. They would be transported via Croatia to POW camps in Albania.

Albanian Front
On the 2nd of January, naval operations on the coast finally bore fruit, when the combined Albanian and Macedonian fleets met the Serbian fleet - if these small vessels could even be called that - off Cape Rodonit, Albania.

In this, referred to as the "Battle of Cape Rodonit," the Allied forces used their slight advantage in numbers to combat the Serbs greater firepower, swarming and keeping them on their toes. Meanwhile the few operational subs belonging to Albania took advantage of the chaos, and crept through the battle undetected. Moving in range of the largest Serbian vessels, they fired their torpedoes at them.

Only about half of the torpedoes managed to find their mark, despite the favorable range. And of these, only a third managed to explode - their age showing itself. Still, the effect was noticeable. One of the Serbian vessels was sunk, and two more suffered bad hits. Only one other was hit, barely. Yet, this worked. Much of the Serbian firepower was removed from the battle.

As a result, the Serbian fleet had to flee. While the majority of their vessels remained intact, they still lost for the rest of the war their largest ships, and about a sixth of their fleet overall. The allied fleet suffered slightly less, with all of their losses, comparable in number, being various gunboats.

While a significant loss to both navies, this meant that the Serbs had to flee back to their base at Bar. And an end to Serbian raids.

On the land, things remained about the same throughout early January - the Serbs were busy investing Shkodër, and the Macedonians were busy fighting them off near Skopje. Yet, that did not mean that they were idle - especially the Albanians.

Serb forces in the region continued to consolidate their lines, and expanded them slightly in the north to take the town of Vau i Dejes, securing a vital road junction, and hurting smuggling efforts to the city.

In the south, however, following their victory, the Allied fleet had another thought in mind. Knowing the Serb positions on land, while possible to push back, would be futile in the end because of the rivers, they chose another option.

On January 21st, backed by the Allied Navies, Macedonian and Albanian Marines - previously kept back - landed at the minor Serbian naval base of Ulcinj, in a surprise landing. Within a few short hours, they took both the base and the city. With this move, they circumvented the whole problem of the rivers. Shortly after it was ruled secured, units of the Albanian Army were brought in to reinforce the position.

Soon, they moved out from the city, both to avoid getting bottled up, and to accomplish their goal. Moving both eastwards, and to the north, they managed to secure the Serbian side of the former border by the 23rd, providing a safe flank because of the river there. Northwards, they advanced up the road, taking the town of Krute on the same day.

Serbian counterattacks, of course, started about six hours after the landings. However, due to the sheer surprise of the landings, these were small and futile. By the end of the month, just how futile these were really shined through, as Albanian troops reached the river mouth on Lake Skadar, securing its entire western bank. And, in doing so, made the Serbian positions on the east side untenable, especially since Macedonian troops, freed from areas to the south, launched a counterattack on land on the 30th. As a result, Serbian troops beat a hasty retreat to the north bank of the Drin, achieving that position by February 9th, where they continued to besiege the city.

Shkodër continued to hold out throughout this period, largely through the divided attention of the Serbians, though they had beat back assaults on three separate occasions by the time of the Serbian withdrawal to the river.

With the Serbians forced to the other bank of the Drin, the Macedonians were able to smuggle small amounts of supplies into the city again, giving the defenders a new lease on life, though their survival remained tenuous.

Dismayed with the setbacks in the region, and further east, the Serbian Army began another offensive on the 14th, north of the Macedonian city of Prizren, where the Macedonians had been holding positions since they were forced back from the border in November. And, as this region had not previously seen much action, it was under-manned by the Macedonians.

Achieving surprise, the Serbs broke through the defenses, and took Prizren by the 16th. However, as had been the case further east, past there they ran into another mountain pass. Being more open, and without as many defenses, they did manage to force it. However, the Macedonians, after pulling their troops across it, blew the only large bridge over the river, halting the advance cold on the 19th near the city of Kukës. Further Serbian efforts to cross were destroyed.

At Shkodër, the rush of reinforcements from the south did manage some good, when on the 20th they forced a small river crossing at Bahçallëk, just south of Shkodër, though they were halted fairly easily at the top of the small peninsula they captured. It did, however, allow for easier ground contact with the west bank of the rivers.

On March 3rd, the Allied forces launched another surprise attack in the region, airlifting troops vis helicopter behind Serb lines to the town of Renc in the early hours of the morning. At the same time, they brought troops across the Drin east of Bahçallëk via boat, using the islands there as cover, launching an attack there at the same time as the air assault.

Achieving surprise, the assaults forced the Serbs backwards. By the end of the day, in fact, they secured a corridor from Renc to the Drin - putting a number of Serbian troops in danger to the southeast. With dawn, they had taken a tributary of the Drin as their left flank, directly opposite the city - and had secured the other pass out of the area, east of Renc, trapping several hundred Serbian troops.

With this, the Serbian siege of Shkodër ended, though they continued to block all land access - but now the Macedonians could send supplies over the river safely, and cycle out the exhausted defenders.

The trapped Serbian forces were surrounded in the town of Vukatanë on the 6th, where they surrendered on the 8th, having run out of ammunition.

After having rested and rearmed, Albanian forces began to push northwards from Renc on the 11th, through the pass there. They also moved north from the town of Gur i Zi, into another pass, at the same time.

While they stalled near Gur i Zi, because of the pass being more difficult to traverse, progress was made near Renc. By the 14th, the troops had almost cut through the pass - and when they made it through, they would cut off the garrison at Rragam, fighting off the forces in the other pass, from supply.

Not wanting to lose another force like at Vukatanë, Serb commanders pulled back their troops from the area, completing a retreat to the town of Bardhaj just before access was closed off to Rragam.

Executing a slow retreat, the Serbs managed to re-establish themselves at the town of Myselim, and the surrounding lakes and rivers, by the 20th, halting the advance.

Using this movement to their advantage, Macedonian troops moved forwards in the west as well, on the 18th. Moving up the small peninsula that they had secured in late February, and with a large bombardment of the castle at the center of the Serbian lines, they succeeded in busting a hole in them. At the same time, the troops inside the city sallied outwards into the rear of these lines.

This hit them like a thunderbolt. By the 21st, the Allied troops proved victorious, and the last of the Serbian troops along the line surrendered. A land connection to the city was finally re-established.

Other Events
On January 16th, noting that the Macedonians had halted the Serbian attack, though exhausted themselves in the process, the Greek government sent a representative to Skopje with a proposal.

In this, they offered to move troops away from their mutual border, for a year, if the Macedonian government allowed the Greeks free reign in the small Albanian dictatorships between Greek territory and the Macedonian client state of Albania. The weaker Greek forces on the border would allow Macedonia to pull much of their own forces from there, and use them against the Serbians. The only attached condition being that the moved forces must also stay away for the same period of time as the Greeks.

Though solving little in their disputes, this was a good deal, and the Macedonian government took it, sending a diplomat with such to the Greek government on the 18th, just as their counterattack near Skopje was stopped by the Serbians.

And, to the north of Serbia, also aiding the counterattacks after a fashion, Partian and Transylvanian troops, securing more of former Hungary for Partium, reached the northernmost frontiers of Serbia in force on the 23rd, after having been in the region for a month in low numbers, forcing the Serbian generals to move even more of their forces there, to watch the border.

International Reactions
Unsurprisingly, the reaction to the conflict from the Greek Federation, aside from their deal with the Macedonian government, was to ignore it - they would benefit from any outcome.

Croatia loudly condemned the Serbs, though did not make any movements towards war other than to reinforce Serb-majority areas of the republic, to guard against unrest. Yet, almost right after the invasion of Bosnia, they began to shuttle supplies into that nation, by ground and by air.

Rhodope, given the actions of the Serbs with the Vidinites, not only condemned the invasion and expressed its support for the Macedonians, but went as far as to send them some aid, where possible. In late February, they also increased their troop numbers along their border with the Serbs. The action was mimicked further north by the Partians and Transylvanians.

Sicily expressed support for the Serbians, saying that they were only taking back what was rightfully theirs from "glorified rebels."

Outside of the region, the LoN, supported by most nations, condemned Serb actions, and placed an embargo upon the rogue state.