Naija-relationship

  Moscow’s massive military deployment along its border with Ukraine has sparked debate over what exactly the Russian army’s capabilities are. Since the 19th century, Moscow has been a great power, even rising to the status of super power during the Cold War. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the new Russian Federation largely retreated from the international arena riddled with severe economic problems.  Since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian economy has only improved to an extent, but under Vladimir Putin, Moscow has managed to develop a new military programme supported by a large budget. The program has upgraded the country’s military forces from its air force to the navy, developing supersonic cruise missiles and other weaponry.  While the Western alliance continues to question Russian military capabilities, Moscow’s recent deployment across the Ukrainian border areas from Belarus to Eastern Ukraine in a considerably short time likely rang alarm bells across Weste

    What is Russia’s capability? Russia’s military capability is not to be sniffed at, easily ranking among the world’s most powerful. According to the Washington-based  Heritage Foundation , its inventory includes “336 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 2,840 battle tanks, 5,220 armored infantry fighting vehicles, over 6,100 armored personnel carriers and more than 4,684 pieces of artillery”. But it is lacking in some areas of modern military technology, including drone capability, electronic components, and radar and satellite reconnaissance, Russian journalist and military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told  Deutsche Welle . “That’s what the Russian military is talking about: yes, we have weapons, including long-range weapons, but our reconnaissance capabilities are weaker than our attack capabilities,” Felgenhauer said. “So we have-long range, sometimes precision guided weapons, but we don’t always know where the target is.”   Who would win? Research published in

  As the battle of wills and might between Russia and the west over the fate of Ukraine unfolds, there is one key fact to bear in mind: Putin has never lost a war. During past conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Crimea over his two decades in power, Putin succeeded by giving his armed forces clear, achievable military objectives that would allow him to declare victory, credibly, in the eyes of the Russian people and a wary, watching world. His latest initiative in Ukraine is unlikely to be any different. Despite months of military build-up along Ukraine's borders and repeated warnings from the Biden administration that an incursion could happen at any time, the February 24 pre-dawn bombing campaign that kicked off Europe's first land war in decades seemed to come as a surprise to many Ukrainians. In major cities across a country the size of the state of Texas, stunned citizens, lulled into complacency by their president's repeated reassurances that Russia would not