Ukraine vs Russia

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.