Zaluzhnyi spoke about the problems in the Armed Forces before the war: We met Russia with a shortage of everything
Valerii Zaluzhnyi (Photo: screenshot of the film The Year by Dmytro Komarov)

In mid-2019, Russia began preparations for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, deploying troops along the border. The Ukrainian Armed Forces faced this invasion with a huge shortage of everything from men to weapons, said in the column on LIGA.net former head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and now Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK Valeriy Zaluzhnyi.

According to the 2021 Global Firepower Index, Russia's army was ranked second among the world's strongest armies after the United States (over a million troops), and the Ukrainian army was ranked 25th with 250,000, of which 240,000 were military personnel.

Since 2019, Russia has been increasing its military budget every year, Zaluzhnyi says, investing resources in the defense industry and buying more and more weapons and equipment. In Ukraine, it was the opposite: in 2021, the Armed Forces received less money than the year before.

"Less than half of the 260 billion hryvnias was allocated for the Defense Ministry. Funding for the development and purchase of weapons and equipment was not increased, most of the money was traditionally spent on military salaries... The Armed Forces faced a huge shortage of everything from people to weapons," the former chief said.

At the end of 2021, the Russian army was five times larger than the Ukrainian army; the enemy had four times more tanks and armored combat vehicles, 3.4 times more artillery, and four and a half times more attack helicopters. The Ukrainian Navy did not even have aircraft carriers, destroyers, corvettes, or submarines.

At the time of Zaluzhny's appointment as Chief of Staff, the Armed Forces had only 24 combat brigades, of which, as of August 2021, 12 were performing combat missions in eastern and southern Ukraine. And only 12 combat brigades, which were stationed at training grounds or in permanent deployments, could be sent to deter the enemy.

"All this gave Russia the opportunity to use the strategy of defeat to achieve its political goal. Therefore, in 2021, Russia began to significantly increase the number of troops along the border with Ukraine. And as of August, the configuration of possible invasion directions was already emerging," the general summarized.