By any estimation, the battle for Ukraine was never going to be a fair fight.
The invading Russian Federation commands the world’s second-most powerful military, behind only the United States, having spent an estimated $61.7 billion US on defence in 2020, according to figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Ukraine spent a tenth of that, just $5.9 billion US.
And that disparity shows in almost every possible comparison.
Russia has almost 900,000 active military personnel to draw on in its war of aggression, versus Ukraine’s standing military of around 200,000. Ukraine has vastly fewer attacking aircraft — 146 versus Russia’s 1,328 —
