Explained: The military strengths of Russia and Ukraine, compared

Russia’s overwhelming military superiority

Putin had been deploying a massive arsenal of missiles and rockets along the Ukraine border for weeks. Russia is a world leader when it comes to missile technology. It can use its missiles to incapacitate Ukraine’s air defence systems as its land forces move in, capture important installations like ports and airports, and overwhelm Ukraine’s forces and infrastructure.

While western European nations have contributed military equipment to Ukraine in the recent past, the country’s military capabilities pale in comparison to Russia’s, which has among the mightiest armed forces in the world.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks global arms trade, at US$ 61.7 billion, Russia’s military expenditure in 2020 was over ten times of US$5.9 billion that Ukraine spent.

In a head-to-head comparison of the military capabilities of the two nations, Russia outnumbers Ukraine in almost every aspect. According to Global Fire Power, which has been analysing the military capabilities of countries across the world since 2006, while Russia is the second most powerful country militarily, Ukraine is ranked 22 out of 140 nations.

A comparison between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

Personnel and equipment compared

Russia has nearly 850,000 active personnel, which is more than three times 250,000 for Ukraine. In terms of airpower, Russia has more than 4,100 aircraft, with 772 fighters, while Ukraine only has 318 total aircraft, with just 69 fighter aircraft.

Similarly, in terms of ground forces, Russia has around 12,500 tanks and more than 30,000 armoured vehicles, while Ukraine only has around 2,600 tanks and 12,000 armoured vehicles. While Russia has around 14,000 towed and self-propelled artillery guns, Ukraine’s total number is just over 3,000.

Although navies are unlikely to make any direct contact in this conflict, still, Russia has more than 600 naval vessels, including one aircraft carrier, compared to the total 38 naval vessels with Ukraine. For stealth capabilities in the sea, Russia has 70 submarines, to zero for Ukraine.

Missiles and help from the West

Ukraine had been arming itself with anti-tank missiles taken from the US, though. Hundreds of the Javelin missiles have been given to Ukraine since December, which will help Ukrainian troops to target Russian tanks. It is a man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile, which means that a soldier can fire it from his shoulder, and its automatic infrared guidance system will target the tanks from above, which is the weakest part of any tank.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov had been tweeting the incoming military supplies from various western powers, which apart from the Javelin missiles also included the man-portable surface-to-air Stinger missiles, tons of ammunition, rifles, machine guns with optical sights, night vision and surveillance systems, and other military equipment.

On February 11 Reznikov had tweeted the arrival of 90 tonnes of US ammunition, which, he said had taken the total military aid by then to over 1,300 tonnes.

According to The New York Times, the US has committed over US$2.7 billion to Ukraine in security assistance since 2014, including a US$200 million package in December “comprising equipment like Javelin and other anti-armour systems, grenade launchers, large quantities of artillery, mortars and small-arms ammunition”.

But now that Russia’s “invasion” has begun, all of these will barely matter, considering Russia’s military supremacy over its much smaller western neighbour.

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