Ukraine 2022 - Ukrainian Forces

Ukraine's military was estimated to have a total of around 150,000 ground troops, with the army comprising the bulk of that. The Joint Forces Operation, which runs operations along a 400-kilometer "line of control" in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, is estimated have between 30,000 and 35,000 troops. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said 18 January 2022 it was speeding up efforts to form reserve battalions that would allow for the rapid deployment of 130,000 recruits to expand the country's military.

Along with the rapidly forming Territorial Defense forces, lightly armed and poorly trained straight-leg infantry expected to number about 130,000 troops by early February 2922, and as many as 200,000 mobilized Reserve forces, Ukraine appeared to have about 285,000 troops poised to opposed at least 100,000 Russian troops. On paper, Ukraine had nearly three times the number of Russian troops, while at the agressor, Russia should plan on having three times as many troops as Ukraine. Russia would have air supremacy, and the relatively well-trained and heavily equiped Russian forces should overmatch those of Ukraine.

Gilbert Doctorow noted 04 February 2022 that "two-thirds of the Ukrainian military or about 150,000 troops are all concentrated on the line of demarcation with Donbas. That is to say, there are almost no Ukrainian forces in the northeast around Kharkiv facing Russian military or to the north of Kiev to face the combined Russian-Belarus military. If this is true, then Mr. Zelensky’s insistence that he does not expect a Russian invasion is justified by Ukrainian boots on the ground. If Russia is holding a pistol to the head of Ukraine, as Boris Johnson stated earlier this week, then Kiev is holding a pistol to the head of the rebel provinces."

Eduard Basurin (Basuryn) was interviewed by Russian Middle East expert Semyon Bagdasarov, streamed live on state TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov's Solovyov Live YouTube channel on 4 February 2022. It was subsequently posted on the "Politika Segodnya: Russia USA Ukraine" channel on 5 February. Basurin alleged that the Ukrainian grouping in Donbas had recently increased from 60,000-70,000 men to around 135,000, and in a week it was expected to reach 140,000-145,000.