There seems to a little noise in the news reports and on twitter about Russian military build-up near the Ukrainian border areas with Russia. Yesterday, President Biden talked to President Zelensky of Ukraine. I do not know how serious this is, but it might be worthwhile for a moment to take a look at how big is Ukraine compared to Russia.
Ukraine Russia
Population 41.5 M 146.7 M
GDP 161 B 1,584 B
GDP (PPP) 420 B 4,226 B
Area (sq. km) 603 K 17,098 K
So, basically Russia has three and 1/2 times the population and ten times the money.
Note: Ukrainian population excludes Crimea and Sevastopol. It was 48.4 M in 2001. Russian population includes Crimea, which is 2.4 million.
Armed Forces
Ukraine Russia
Active 255 K 900 K
Reserve 1,000 K 2,000 K
Deployed 60 K
.
Budget $ 5.4 B $ 65.1 B
Percent of GDP 3% 3.9%
So, Russia two and 1/2 to three and 1/2 times the personnel and over ten time the budget.
And let us look at three of the other “players” in the area:
Belarus Germany United States
Population 9.4 M 83.2 M 328.2 M
GDP 57 B 3,780 B 20,807 B
GDP (PPP) 186 B 4,454 B 20,807 B
Area 208 K 357 K 9,833 K
Active 62 K 184 K 1,386 K
Reserve 345 K 29 K 849 K
Deployed — 2,697 165 K
.
Budget $ 0.78 B $ 57 B $ 738 B
Percent of GDP 1.2% 1.3% 3.4%
These are all just figures grabbed from Wikipedia without any further analysis or cross-checking.