Russia surpasses losses of 3,000 tanks in Ukraine, with some very striking data

@DefAviation ES 5·10·2024 · 18:52 0

The Russian army has broken a new record, despite itself, in the invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022 and is still continuing.

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Yesterday, the independent website Oryxspioenkop.com, which has been documenting the losses of both sides in this war, noted that Russia has reached 3,000 tanks lost in this invasion. The figures published by that website are not estimates, but are based on vehicles identified through photos and videos published in open sources (social networks, media, etc.). Thus, real Russian tank losses would be higher than those 3,000.

This new Russian mark coincides with another very significant figure: yesterday 2,001 Russian tanks destroyed in Ukraine were reached (since the losses include destroyed, damaged, abandoned and captured tanks). Furthermore, the number of Russian tanks captured by Ukraine already exceeds 500, specifically 514. With this number, Russia remains the largest supplier of tanks to Ukraine, even if involuntarily.

There is some very striking data in the list of Russian losses published by Oryxspioenkop.com. To begin with, no T-14 Armata, the most modern Russian tank, appears on the list. This is not because it is such a formidable tank that the Ukrainians have not even been able to damage one. Quite the contrary. The problems that the T-14 Armata has caused (I explained them here last year) led the Kremlin not to deploy it on the front in Ukraine, so which has not even been tested in combat. It should not be ruled out that this decision is also explained by the fear that the Ukrainian forces would end up destroying or capturing one.

Another quite striking figure is the one that indicates the performance of the T-90M, the most modern active tank in the Russian army. This variant of the T-90 made its public appearance in 2017. Thus, for practical purposes, it is the Russian equivalent of the most modern versions of the American M1 Abrams, although there is a great difference between the two in terms of technological.

As we already saw here, Ukraine managed to destroy the first T-90M in combat in May 2022 and in September of that year it managed to capture one. These facts seem like mere anecdotes now seeing the figure included in the Oryxspioenkop.com list: Russia has already lost 89 T-90M, an enormous amount, especially considering that the Russian army does not even have as large quantities of that model as other older tanks. In addition, Ukraine has captured three of those tanks.

Among the Russian tanks most damaged by we must mention 545 T-80BV, 356 T-72B3 and 334 T-72B. For those who believe that the Russian army has an almost unlimited reserve of tanks and does not have to worry about such heavy losses, let us remember that at the beginning of the invasion Russia had between 2,609 and 2,849 tanks in its standing army .

The current losses mean that Russia has already had to resort to its stores of old tanks to make up for its losses. The Oryxspioenkop.com list also exposes the losses of those most obsolete models: 8 T-54/55 (a model from the 1950s that in many countries can only be seen in museums and monuments) and 136 T-62s of different variants (a model from the 1960s that was already outdated in the 1990s and was withdrawn from service by Russia more than 10 years ago). That Russia has to resort to such antiquated tanks is the best indication of how bad things are going for it in this invasion.

Finally, it is worth remembering that for ten years, the USSR lost 147 tanks in the invasion of Afghanistan, a war that ended with a Soviet defeat and the withdrawal of its forces from that country. In less than two and a half years, Russia has lost 20 times as many tanks in Ukraine. In light of these figures, it is surprising that there are still people who believe it is possible for Russia to win this war, especially considering Note that, according to Oryxspioenkop.com, Ukraine has lost 808 tanks, losses that will have been more than compensated by captured Russian tanks and tanks donated by Western countries.

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Main photo: Serhii Bondarchuk . A Russian tank destroyed in the first months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.