This is how you compare the military strength of Ukraine and Russia

(CNN) – After months of military build-up and brinkmanship on the Ukrainian border, Russia announced military action in Donbass, threatens to destabilize Europe and attract the United States. US President Joe Biden, issued a statement On “Russia’s Unprovoked and Unprovoked Attack on Ukraine”.

Russia has beefed up its military position on the Ukrainian border since last year, massing tens of thousands of troops, equipment and artillery at the country’s gates. US intelligence officials have warned that Russian aggression may be imminent, The invasion finally arrived on Thursday.

Earlier, Moscow repeatedly denied planning an attack and insisted that NATO’s support for Ukraine posed a growing threat to Russia’s western flank.

Given the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, how do you see the confrontation of forces?

There is a great asymmetry between the Ukrainian army and the Russian army.

“This is not the exhausted Russian army it had right after the Cold War,” says the analyst. Jeffrey Edmunds, National Security Council. “It’s a very mobile, fairly modern, well-trained army with a very good air force, large ground forces, a lot of artillery control, and small ships that have a lot of capabilities for ground attack missions.”

Edmunds says that since the Cold War, the Russian military has focused heavily on long-range attack systems.

The Russians have increased their military presence in Crimea since 2014 with refurbished air bases and additional naval assets in the Black Sea, including diesel-powered submarines and small cruisers.

Each of these platforms has a long-range attack capability, Edmunds says, and that’s one of the real big differences in the Russian military.

Any aircraft launching attacks from the Russian mainland can have attacks coming from the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian army is too late. They have new air defense systems, some “Stingers” (surface-to-air missiles). Through NATO, the Allies provided anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons systems to the Ukrainians.

Both sides have ground forces. Both have Russian-made air forces. On the Russian side they are larger and more modern than the Ukrainian.

Russia has an extensive rail network and regularly practices the transportation of these forces.

With information from Matthew Chance and Laura Smith Spark