Here’s the position of the Russian and Ukrainian military forces in and around Crimea.
Although it is dated Mar. 1, 2014, hence a bit obsolete how dynamic the situation on the ground is in Crimea and around Ukraine, the above map at least gives a rough idea of the position of the Ukrainian Military Bases and the Russian forces located nearby.
It was first published by a Russian language blog, along with another map focusing on Ukrainian bases (below).
As Dmitry Gorenburg of Russian Military Reform blog noted the majority of Kiev’s forces are located in Western Ukraine; a positioning that reflects the defensive posture against NATO forces of the Soviet period.
“There are two mechanized infantry brigades, a tank brigade, and an artillery brigade in the east, though, as well as airborne brigade and a tactical aviation brigade. Compare this to western Ukraine, where there are five mechanized infantry brigades, two artillery brigades, a tank brigade, a rocket brigade, four tactical aviation brigades, two army aviation regiments, and an air mobile brigade. Also worth highlighting the forces located in the south, near the Crimea: one mechanized infantry brigade, a tactical aviation brigade, an air mobile brigade and an army aviation regiment,” says Gorenburg.
The text accompanying the images says that the Ukrainian forces include 184,000 people, 4 armored brigades, 15 mechanized brigades, 3 airmobile brigade, one airborne brigade, 15 artillery brigades, 2 rocket brigades, 1 airmobile regiment; 773 tanks.
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The orbat includes 160 combat planes and 25 transport aircraft: even though we may guess just a part of those are airworthy and/or combat ready, the actual figures remain a mistery.
Image credit: http://armijarossii.blogspot.com/
On Mar. 10, NATO announced the deployment of E-3 AWACS to monitor the airspace surrounding Ukraine, while more U.S. F-16s are deploying to Poland.
H/T to Russian Military Reform blog
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