Ukraine has been invaded by Russia from its eastern and northeastern borders. Earlier in January, the United States had put 8500 of its troops on “heightened preparedness to deploy” in eastern Europe. This has been done to reinforce the security of NATO’s eastern flank in the event of Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been amassing troops for over a year on its border with Ukraine (which is said to be over 100,000 now) with a demand that Ukraine must never be made a part of NATO.
Ukraine’s Pro-NATO President Zelensky said last year that his country is ready to push back any attempts of invasion ordered by President Putin. It is hence important to know the details of military capabilities of each side to predict how the war would unravel and which side would have an upper hand (at least on paper) should an invasion take place. Here’s the comparison of their respective military prowess (based on a report by armedforces.eu and Global Firepower Index):
1.Military Expenditure:
Ukraine annual military budget is USD 11.87 billion which is 3 percent of the country’s GDP. Russia has a military budget of USD 154 billion.
2. Manpower:
The number of active personnel in Ukrainian military is 255,000, reserved personnel is 250,000. Russia has an active military personnel of 850000 and reserved personnel of 250,000.
3. Land Forces:
Ukraine has 2105 tanks, 6990 armoured fighting vehicles, 3721 total artilleries including 630 rocket artillery and 1047 self-propelled artillery. Russia has 12270 tanks, 26831 armoured fighting vehicles, 18497 total artilleries including 4359 rocket artillery and 6532 self-propelled artilleries.
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4. Aircrafts:
Ukraine has a total of 326 aircrafts, including 70 fighter jets, 29 attack helicopter, 129 helicopters and 12 UCAV (drones). Russia has a total of 5552 aircrafts, including 792 fighter jets, 832 multi-role jets, 880 attack helicopter, 1724 helicopters and 30 UCAV (drones).
5. Navy:
Ukraine has 63navy ships with just one frigate. Russia has 664 naval ships including 1 aircraft carrier, 18 destroyers, 11 frigates, 83 corvettes and 59 submarines.
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6. Nuclear weapons:
After the dismemberment of the USSR, Ukraine possessed 5000 nuclear weapons, becoming the third largest holder of nukes in the world. In 1994, they joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty and in 1996 all the warheads were disassembled by Russia. Russia currently has over 6000 nuclear warheads.
7. As per the recently released Global Firepower Index, Ukraine has a PwrIdnx of 0.3266 and Russia has a PwrIndx of 0.0501. (0.0000 being optimal).
