Russian forces have lost two-thirds of their tanks in Ukraine and are struggling with obsolete Soviet-era vehicles, according to an intelligence report by Dutch open-source website Oryx.
Since the invasion began in February last year, Moscow has reportedly deployed around 3,000 tanks in its attack on Ukraine.
However, the website revealed that tank losses by President Vladimir Putin’s forces stand at 2,000 after more than 15 months of heavy fighting.
The collected data shows that 1,239 of the tanks had been completely destroyed, while 106 are partially damaged.
In addition, 113 of the armored vehicles have been abandoned, with 544 captured by Kyiv’s forces.
“This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available,” Oryx stated in its report.
Factors Behind the Losses
Jakub Janovsky, a military analyst and Oryx contributor, claims that the high number of Russian tank losses can be attributed to Ukraine’s effective use of anti-tank weapons.
Kyiv currently possesses more than 1,500 TOW anti-tank missiles from the US and 5,000 next-generation light anti-tank weapon (NLAW) systems from the UK.
The analyst also commended Ukraine’s use of mines and artillery, which have heavily affected the operations of Russian tanks on the frontline.
Additionally, Janovsky did not rule out the possibility that the high number of Russian losses in Ukraine could also be caused by its “reckless” invasion plan.
“The ratio of equipment losses is still very favorable to Ukraine, but less so than it was in autumn last year,” he said.
Signs of Struggle
According to an Insider report last year, Russia was forced to bring Soviet-era tanks out of storage to compensate for the country’s armor losses on the battlefield.
It has also deployed the T-14 Amata main battle tank despite reports that Russian soldiers were reluctant to use them because of their “poor” condition.
During the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow, Putin only displayed a single Stalin-era tank, which was seen as an indication of major equipment losses in the war.
