When Russia "acted", people marveled at the speed of modern warfare, which was significantly shortened by advanced ** equipment.
But when people lament the gap in military power between Russia and Ukraine, they seem to ignore the fact that Ukraine was once a country with strong military power inherited the rich legacy of the former Soviet Union.
So, how did this once-powerful army go into decline?
Ukraine is located in the eastern part of Europe, adjacent to Russia, Poland and other countries, and its strategic position is extremely important, and it is a key geopolitical node connecting the EU and Russia.
During Soviet times, Ukraine attracted attention for its status as an important grain and military-industrial base. This country once had great powers, such as the Black Sea Shipyard located on the territory of Ukraine, which was once the only aircraft carrier factory in the former Soviet Union, which was of great importance to the former Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, not only did the Black Sea Shipyard become the property of Ukraine, but Ukraine also inherited 780,000 troops and a large number of advanced ** equipment.
According to data, Ukraine once had 6,000 tanks, more than 7,000 armored vehicles, as well as more than 1,500 fighter jets of various types and more than 350 aircraft of various types.
What's even more amazing is that Ukraine also has more than 1,200 intercontinental missiles and more than 2,500 tactical nuclear missiles in its arsenal, making it the world's third-largest nuclear possessor after the United States and Russia.
In addition, Ukraine has more than 3,500 military-industrial enterprises, and its complete military-industrial system is enviable and unmatched by many countries in the world.
Ukraine was once known as the "breadbasket of Europe", and many people believe that it has grain and **, and will live the best among the former Soviet member states in the future. But the truth is contrary to what people expected, in just a few years, Ukraine is in a difficult situation, and even needs to "shout to save the country" on social **.
This is because, despite the influence of the US-Russia game, the core problem is Ukraine's own failure to effectively develop its economy. At the end of the 80s of the last century, "Shock **" was successful in Bolivia, attracting the attention of many countries.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine tried economic reforms called "shock**", but they did not realize that "shock**" originated from Bolivia's unique national conditions, and blindly applying it would only bring serious economic damage.
This has also been confirmed by the facts, after the implementation of the "shock**", Russia's GDP has shrunk by half, Ukraine's GDP has plummeted by 2 3, and the country's inflation rate has soared to a staggering 4734%.
Soon, Russia realized the problem and abandoned the wrong economic policy, but Ukraine chose to stick to it, and in a few years, managed to reduce GDP to 1 4 before the implementation of the "shock **".
The recession has had a profound impact on Ukrainian society, especially on the military front, where a large number of troops have been cut and destroyed due to a shortage of funds.
Ukraine's nuclear arsenal, especially those thousands of nuclear warheads, has become a huge burden on its shoulders. These nuclear weapons require a lot of money to maintain, which puts a huge financial pressure on Ukraine.
To make matters worse, the Black Sea shipyard can no longer produce warships like the "Varyag", and the nuclear ** cannot be arbitrary**, but rather like a gold-eating monster that "only goes in but does not leave".
The United States and Russia saw this opportunity and successfully persuaded Ukraine to sign the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 and agreed to destroy all nuclear weapons in its territory through coercion and inducement.
In exchange, the United States and Russia pledged economic assistance and military protection.
In the next 7 years, Ukraine successfully destroyed all the nuclear power in its territory, thus "downgrading" from the world's third largest nuclear power to a non-nuclear state.
At that time, whether it was the United States, Russia, Europe or Ukraine, they were very happy. For the Western camp and Russia, there is one less threat in the world; And for Ukraine, they not only save a lot of military spending, but also receive economic and military assistance, which seems to be a very good deal.
However, is this deal really a good deal? Now Ukrainians seem to be beginning to realize that it was actually a mistake to abandon nuclear ** in the first place. However, Ukraine has made much more mistakes than that.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the first half of the 90s of the last century, the former Soviet member states generally fell into chaos. However, most countries achieved "relative stability" politically and economically after a few years.
Only Ukraine, it seems, has not fully recovered. Why is that?
To some extent, the oligarchic power in Ukraine has become a stumbling block to the country's development. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this group of wealthy elites emerged in each of the former member states, and they took advantage of the circumstances of the time to quickly accumulate wealth and become the backbone of society.
However, under Putin's leadership, Russia has rectified the oligarchy in the country with an iron fist, re-established the authority of the state, and consolidated its ruling position. In contrast, since the second Kuchma, the oligarchs in Ukraine have been growing, and they have begun to participate in politics by finding ** people, and even directly intervene in political activities, their purpose is to make crazy money by holding power.
Since Ukraine's independence, its successive leaders have been influenced by a powerful oligarchy behind it, creating a situation of "you sing and I will appear". At home, the confrontation and competition between the pro-Western and pro-Russian forces has made Ukraine vacillate between "leaving Russia and joining Europe" and getting closer to Russia, and the situation is even more complicated because it has lost its nuclear **.
This embarrassing situation has made Ukraine a country that is "not human inside and outside": proximity to the West provokes discontent in Russia, increases energy **, and hits the economy hard, while the West sees Ukraine as a burden.
a reluctance to truly accept; Proximity to Russia, while it can reduce energy **, can provoke discontent in the West, which seeks to overthrow the pro-Russian regime through "color revolutions".
The domestic society has been torn apart for a long time, and the oligarchs only care about their own interests and accumulate wealth, and no one seems to care about Ukraine's economy and national defense construction, which has led to a long-term downturn in Ukraine's economy, with a per capita GDP of only 3,700 US dollars, ranking last in Europe, and falling from the "breadbasket of Europe" to "European orphans".
This long-term "rotten" country is difficult to feed its army, and in desperation, Ukraine can only adopt disarmament to save defense spending. After many disarmaments, when the Maidan Revolution broke out in 2013, there were only 300,000 troops left in Ukraine, and a large number of tanks and artillery shells had been idle for a long time due to lack of funds.
The Black Sea Fleet, the only all-weather fleet in the former Soviet navy that was not afraid of freezing, became the focus of contention between Russia and Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since the USSR had already annexed the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine in 1954, the Black Sea Fleet should theoretically belong to Ukraine.
However, it is unthinkable for Russia to abandon such a powerful navy. Eventually, after years of negotiations, Russia and Ukraine agreed to split the Black Sea Fleet in two.
Ukraine, which originally needed to invest a lot of GDP in the maintenance of the Black Sea Fleet, chose to abandon the maintenance of the fleet, which led to the aging of the fleet's ships and the decline in combat effectiveness. Even after receiving these ships, Ukraine accepted only 18 of them due to lack of funds for maintenance3%, and the rest of the ships are given to Russia at a low price**.
Even so, Ukraine's military spending is still insufficient, and corruption within the army often makes it impossible for the army to pay salaries on time, soldiers have left their jobs, and some have even begun to resell ** and military rations to make a living.
It is not a rumor that Ukrainian soldiers are reselling supplies, as early as 2014, Time magazine reported that Ukrainian soldiers had sent supplies to the United States online**.
According to reports, the military rations aided by the United States were photographed and hung online the day after arriving in Ukraine.
* It shows that the rations have a seal from the US Department of Defense attached to them and are priced between 109-142 hryvnia. Ukraine categorically denied it, saying that the supplies were well protected and had not yet been distributed to the army and were not resold.
However, these justifications do not seem to have won the trust of the United States. US Army Colonel Robert Tracy, who is responsible for training the Ukrainian army, also openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian army.
He believes that Ukraine's economic difficulties make life difficult for soldiers, leading to frequent thefts and greed within the army. In addition, he claimed that the Ukrainian army is completely corrupt and that a lot of the work needs to be done at an additional cost.
Perhaps to make matters worse, there is a widespread problem of alcoholism within the Ukrainian army, which has led to a large number of accidents and even internal conflicts. According to reports, during the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the servicemen of the 35th Brigade had an accident while using **, and ammunition weighing half a ton fell into a nearby Ukrainian army stronghold, killing 3 people, injuring 11 people, and completely destroying the stronghold.
At that time, there was a comment on whether it was the Ukrainian army that "drank too much". In addition, Ukrainian soldiers have repeatedly exposed the depraved situation within the army. According to reports, Anatoly, a former soldier, once exposed the depravity of the army to **.
Anatoly noted that the real income of Ukrainian servicemen is below the level promised, and the average monthly salary of ordinary soldiers is about 2,300 yuan, although this is a relatively good employment opportunity that they can find.
Although the military claims to have provided food to NATO standards, delicious food and beautiful uniforms are distributed only to soldiers who show their troops, and most soldiers need to order sleeping bags and shoes at their own expense.
In addition, the benefits offered by the military are limited, so many Ukrainians are more inclined to look for jobs that bring more income than to join the military.
The quality of the personnel in the army varies, and many of them are unemployed vagrants who live on meagre salaries. Anatoly also mentioned that the quality of the servicemen is not high, and the lack of equipment and military training are among the problems.
Although the United States and NATO have provided some military assistance, this is more like a symbolic "little raindrop" and does not substantially help to boost the strength of the Ukrainian army.
The training of Ukrainian troops in Western countries is more formal, and, even if some Western military personnel once genuinely wanted to help train Ukrainian soldiers, they would complain like Robert, pointing out that Ukrainian soldiers are unwilling to learn English, master advanced Western tactics, and communicate effectively with Western soldiers.
In addition, Anatoly stated that he often saw soldiers drinking alcohol and even taking drugs during his service. The soldiers behaved in such a way that even the commander of a tank battalion in Ukraine allegedly liked to solve problems with "vodka".
Thus, Anatoly believes that despite the fact that Ukraine has highly qualified officers and senior commanders, there are also problems with the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian army due to the numerous problems of the country and the army as a whole, which make it impossible for them to effectively manage soldiers.
Now, due to the injustice he has suffered in the Ukrainian army, Anatoly has joined the armed groups of Eastern Ukraine, which to some extent reflects the discord of the Ukrainian army.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine is moving towards self-destruction step by step, and its military strength, which was once the third largest in the world, has been exhausted.
The Ukrainian army is unable to compete with Russia, and may not even be able to defeat the Ukrainian armed forces, which is really self-inflicted. This speaks volumes about the importance of having a strong national defense force.
Just imagine, if Ukraine still holds thousands of nuclear warheads, will civilians still suffer from war?