Ukraine's Armed Forces rank among the world's 20 most powerful armies for second consecutive year
Photo: Telegram / Zelenskiy / Official
In the past year, 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine secured the 18th position in the ranking of the world's most powerful armies.
Compared to the previous year, our country dropped three places, Rubryka reports, citing the updated January 2024 ranking released by the international company Global Firepower.
Researchers evaluated the military strength of 145 countries. According to the ranking, the top four positions remained unchanged. The United States leads the list. Russia, China, India, and South Korea follow.
In January 2022, the Ukrainian army was positioned at 22nd place. In January 2023, amid Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine rose to 15th place in the ranking.
To assess the "strength" of the army, researchers identified 60 separate categories, including the number of military units, financial condition, material-technical capabilities, and geography.
This rating allows less technologically advanced countries to compete with more developed ones. Special modifiers such as bonuses and penalties are applied to further refine the annual list.
Photo: Global Firepower
This year, Ukraine's "neighbors" in the ranking are Israel (17th place) and Germany (19th place). The Armed Forces of Ukraine have a power index of 0.2598 (the lower, the better, with 0.0000 considered an ideal indicator).
"Ukrainian military strength is reinforced by financial and material support from Western allies, particularly the USA. In February 2024, two bloody years pass since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war," the authors said in the overview.
In related news, Ukraine was included in the list of the most dangerous countries to visit in 2024 in the "safety" category. Alongside the country, this "designation" was given to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Somalia. Meanwhile, the safest countries are located in Europe: Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, and Denmark.
According to the assessment by Schengen Visa Info, Ukraine scored 75.1 out of 100 in the safety ranking (the higher the score, the worse the indicator). Switzerland received 45 points for comparison, while Russia scored 93.8, almost topping another anti-ranking.
