Analysis: 'No walkover' - Ukraine could extract high price for any Russian attack

FILE PHOTO: Service members of the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces take part in artillery drills at a shooting range in an unknown location in eastern Ukraine, in this handout picture released December 17, 2021. Picture released December 17, 2021. Press Service of the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Ukraine's armed forces are heavily outnumbered and outgunned by Russia's but could put up a level of resistance that would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to pay a price of many thousands of Russian lives for any new invasion.

Western military analysts say Ukraine's army is better trained and equipped than in 2014, when Russia captured the Crimean peninsula without a fight, and highly motivated to defend the country's heartland.