President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that in order to defend Ukraine against Russia without NATO, the country’s army should have 1.5 million soldiers.

He stated this at a Munich Security Conference.

Answering a question about Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, he said that it would be the cheapest option for our country to guarantee security.

According to him, if Ukraine remains outside the bloc, or before joining it, our army should be able to defend the state on its own.

“I’m just telling you the numbers that we understand with all the military. That is, it will be an army of 1.5 million. One and a half million!” Zelensky emphasized.

He justified this number of troops by the number of combat brigades in the Russian army.

“They have 220, and we have 110 combat brigades today. So we need 220,” Zelensky summed up.

Zelenskyy estimated Ukraine’s annual security budget without NATO at $40 billion a year. If the army is increased to 1.5 million, the funding should be about $60 billion.

In September 2024, the Russian Federation increased the number of its armed forces to 2 million 389 thousand people, including 1.5 million military personnel.

In January 2024, Russia announced plans to increase the number of troops to 1.5 million by 2026.

As part of this deployment, two new military districts were created – Moscow and Leningrad. The aggressor also plans to form an army corps in Karelia, three motorized rifle divisions as part of the ground forces, and two airborne assault divisions of the Russian Airborne Forces.