A decade of quiet preparations helped Ukraine turn the tables on Russia's bigger, better-armed military, experts say

Sun, 01/29/2023 - 17:33

Ukraine troops soldiers RPG sniper rifles Irpin — Ukrainian troops carry rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles toward the city of Irpin in March 2022.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

Following Russia's 2014 attack, Ukraine's military set out to improve and modernize its forces.
Kyiv's decisions during that period helped it hold off Moscow's assault in late February 2022.

When Russia annexed Crimea and stoked a conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region in 2014, Ukraine's military was in poor condition, with only 6,000 combat-ready troops out of a 140,000-strong force.

In the years that followed, Ukraine's military underwent a period of preparation that helped it blunt the full-scale invasion that Russia launched in February 2022.