There are terms that are both simple and not actively misleading (as much of that war happened in non-Russian USSR) - what's wrong with "Eastern front of WW2" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II) ?

Well, depends how far East you go… But generally yeah that makes sense. Or talk about the two governments: "Nazi-Soviet war"

Saying "Russia" rather than "USSR" in this context is not really simplifying, it is more like distorting history. Like saying Prussia instead of Germany. "The Prussian-French war of 1940-1945"

How about the "Austria-Serbia war of 1914-1918"?

The weirdest part of it is that it seems to be an academic article. A lot of people are lumping all USSR and even exUSSR nationalities into "Russians" after the Cold War era dehumanization, but this doesn't seem to be ignorance.

Not sure why the "Otechestvennaya" part in "Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna" is usually translated as Patriotic while it actually means Fatherland.

Patriotic etymologically has the same meaning, and bears much more sense in the context.