Russian military equipment losses hit 20,000: A closer look
The threshold of 20,000 confirmed destroyed units of Russian military equipment, documented with photos or videos, has been crossed. Among these, 5,466 are infantry fighting vehicles and 3,704 are various types of tanks. Here's an overview of what the Russians have lost the most.
The list of destroyed military equipment during the war in Ukraine, maintained by the OSINT analyst group oryxspioenkop, now includes 20,000 entries. This differs from the Ukrainian claims of 117,000 pieces of equipment. However, it is worth noting that the Ukrainians include in their list items such as cruise missiles and Shahed drones along with civilian vehicles used by the Russians.
These two categories alone add up to 60,000 units. In contrast, the comparison regarding tanks (most eagerly counted by OSINT) is 3,704 vs. 9,844 units according to the Ukrainians, which is already a very likely number because not all destroyed tanks are captured on recordings or photos.
This equipment was most commonly lost by the Russians — infantry relies on makeshift creations from the Mad Max universe
The Russians lost the most infantry fighting vehicles (5,366), trucks and other transport vehicles (probably underestimated at 3,798 units), tanks (3,704), and armored personnel carriers (1,863).
In the case of infantry fighting vehicles tasked with bringing assault groups as close as possible to enemy positions in the company of tanks, Russia lost over 2,000 BMP-1/2, over 1,000 wheeled infantry vehicles BTR-82A, and over 600 of the latest BMP-3. These vehicles are heavily armed with a 30 mm 2A42 autocannon, except for the BMP-3, which also has a 100 mm cannon but is very lightly armored.
In practice, the crew and infantry are protected at most by steel armor, which is about 1 inch thick at the front and about 0.5 to 0.6 inches on the sides. It only provides protection against handheld firearms and, not always, artillery fragments. In contrast, Western IFVs such as the CV90 or the M2A2 Bradley have a layered armor structure reinforced with composites or additionally reinforced with reactive armor that even protects against single-charge warhead rounds.
The loss of vehicles from the BMP family is most acutely felt by the Russians because they have no way to replace them. As a result, fewer armed transporters from the BTR-60/70 family or even antiques like the BTR-50 were used for attacks. Moreover, creations like "armored barns" have emerged. These are often based on non-operational tanks with space for the infantry over the engine compartment, or civilian vehicles are used.
In recent months, there has been increased activity of UAZ Buchanka or Ladas used not only for frontline logistics but even assaults. This is not the end, because when they are lacking, there are even cases of using bicycles or electric scooters.
