Putin’s Russia Has Already Lost a Large Part of Its Heavy Weapons in Ukraine.
A historically unprecedented toll after just 7 months of the war.
After seven months of the war in Ukraine, the figures are quite incredible: one-tenth of its air force, fleet, and missile batteries, and up to half of its operational tanks and 40% of its available infantry tanks. This is the approximate proportion of heavy weapons and equipment that the Russian army has lost in seven months of the war in Ukraine, according to sources.
Losses that show a military posture degraded to an unprecedented degree in such a short time, except perhaps at the beginning of the Second World War.
While the Russian air force and fleet have limited the damage by reducing their operations, the losses are very significant in the army, especially among the armored vehicles (tanks, combat vehicles, troop transports), which are essential for the movement and protection of infantrymen. This is hampering Russia's ability to hold territory, as illustrated by the major setbacks of the last few days.
Obsolete reserves
Ukraine has become a veritable graveyard for Russian armor. The reference site Oryx counts 1,250 tanks whose loss can be authenticated. This is already nine times more than the total number of tanks lost in ten years in Afghanistan ... And exceeds the total combined operational inventory of the French, British and German armies!
As for other armored vehicles, especially infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), at least 2,200 have been destroyed, according to Oryx. Some analysts estimate that the real number of armored vehicles lost is 45% higher, taking into account those whose carcasses have not been found or are no longer identifiable. With 120 Russian battalions involved, each with 10 tanks and 30 other armored vehicles, documented tank losses are already higher than the number of tanks deployed at the beginning of the invasion (reinforcements have since been brought in).
The casualty ratio for other tanks is about 60% of those initially deployed.
Although Moscow has nearly 8,000 tanks in reserve, a large proportion of them is too old to be useful in combat. Ukraine has also lost a lot of heavy weapons, for example, 277 tanks ... but has more than at the beginning of the war, taking into account deliveries from its neighbors and the 421 captured Russian tanks.
Russia's air force and fleet are not very involved, as a precaution
Losses were much lower in the artillery, with for example 118 Grad and Uragan multiple missile launchers destroyed out of 1,300 in inventory. The same is true for the air force, which has been much more cautious since the summer, due to the deployment in Ukraine of effective anti-aircraft systems.
Moscow has lost 22 Sukhoi 25 fighter-bombers out of 196 operational, a dozen Sukhoi 30s out of 145, and 15 Sukhoi 34s, the most modern, out of 123. The losses are even less important for helicopters, about 50 out of an inventory of 1,500, of which only 400 were deployed in Ukraine.
The Russian fleet is also relatively preserved: after the trauma of the loss of one of its only three missile cruisers, the Moskva, in April 2022, it has retreated to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. It hardly participates in combat anymore, except for the occasional launch of a Kalibr missile. It lost three amphibious assault ships out of the seven deployed in the Black Sea. Its fleet of 15 frigates, on the other hand, is intact.
The stockpile of cruise missiles is probably coming to an end since Ukraine estimates that it has been hit by 2,500 of them and Western intelligence services estimate the stockpile at 3,000. They are virtually impossible to replace due to the lack of very special electronic components usually imported from the West.
Some reading
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