Explainer | How does Ukraine’s military stack up against Russia’s?

Name: Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks
Uploaded: 2022-01-27T19:42:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 27 s
Description: Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks

Putin boasted that not a single shot was fired during the takeover of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. But his troops will face a fiercer foe if they invade now

Ukraine’s better trained, better equipped forces could inflict significant damage, experts say, despite Russia’s almost certain victory

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A Ukrainian service member trains with a next generation light anti-tank weapon supplied by Britain in the Lviv region on Thursday. Photo: Ukrainian Defence Ministry via Reuters

Tribune News Service

Published: 3:42am, 28 Jan 2022Updated: 11:23am, 28 Jan 2022

Russia had no problem getting past Ukraine’s military forces when it orchestrated a bloodless takeover of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Russian President Vladimir Putin even boasted that not a single shot was fired during the assault.

But Russian troops will face a far more formidable adversary if Putin invades Ukraine again now. Ukraine’s military is better trained, better equipped and more battle tested than it was eight years ago, experts say.

“They are not what they were in 2014,” said Jim Townsend, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence.

02:27

Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks

While Russia is still the superior military power and would almost certainly prevail, Ukraine’s defence forces could inflict significant damage on Russian troops, according to an analysis by the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington.

“In collaboration with reservists, civil society, and volunteers, they can make any attempted invasion a miserable experience for Russia,” the group concluded in a report last month.