There are a lot of articles claiming that Russia is at unsustainable disadvantage WRT Ukraine due to lack of military personnel. That seems pretty unlikely given its population is still 145 million vs Ukraine's 43M.
http://www.newsweek.com/russia-putin-kremlin-mother-heroine-1734361?spot_im_redirect_source=pitc
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ukraine-population/
"Russia's population has been in decline for decades, with figures released in July by the state statistics agency Rosstat showing it had fallen to 145.1 million.
This followed a decline of an average of 86,000 people per month for the first six months of the year—a record.
It is estimated that Russia's population will fall to about 132 million in the next two decades, with the United Nations predicting that in a worst-case scenario, its population could almost halve, to just 83 million by the start of the next century."
145M vs 43M for Ukraine. Plus I suspect (but don't know) the eastern regions are being counted Ukrainian despite being mostly ethnic Russian.