Russia's military forces outnumber Ukraine's in every respect, with 900,000 in its combined armed forces. However, Ukrainian now has 361,000 active troops, after massively increasing its combat-ready force in recent months. The question is whether it has the military wherewithal to hold Russia's troops at bay.
On Thursday, Russian military forces launched a major offensive into Ukraine along three fronts, moving from the south out of Crimea, from the east toward the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv, and from Belarus with forces aimed at the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Video footage shows nearly every weapon at Russian President Vladimir Putin's disposal has been thrown against the much smaller military forces of Ukraine.
Since 2014, when Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine without firing a shot, the Ukrainian military has clawed its way back, fighting separatists and putting a stop to hostilities in eastern regions. From 2014 to 2020, Ukraine went from allocating 1.5 percent of gross domestic product on military expenditure to 4.1 percent of GDP, according to World Bank figures.
On whether Ukraine could have a fighting chance against the Russian army, Jack Watling, of the Royal United Services Institute, told: "I think the Ukrainians are in a very difficult position." And in recent years, Ukraine has made progress in modernizing its army.
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