I was very surprised by how neglected Ukraine's military had become:
Nothing motivates as hard as an existential threat. First, Ukrainians admitted the truth:
«I'll be frank. Today we have no army. Now we can assemble a group of 5 thousand capable soldiers max [out of 125 on paper]"
- reported minister of defence in 2014
In 2014 Ukrainian equipment was awful. Almost 100% vehicle and ammunition were 25+ year old Soviet stocks. Moreover, most of it just expired. Like vehicles existed on paper but were never checked or used since 1991. Their radiators, accumulators all rotten and unrepairable
I kind of thought that Soviet machines would be easy to fix, like Ladas or the MiG-21. Of course, if stuff isn't maintained it will go to pot especially in a country with poor governance. Presumably munitions degrade because of the inherent instability of high explosives, or maybe there's electrochemical reactions going on too.Judging by the interviews with insurgents who were disappointed to find that rockets, shells, grenades taken from Ukrainian warehouses were 99% dysfunctional (ofc, they were 25+ years old) it's not surprising Ukraine lost to Russia in 2014. It's surprising they could fight at all
Anyway, looks like they learned their lesson, like the British did after the Boer War.
