Russian tank crisis: Over 3,000 losses reveal depot shortages
The portal of the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that the Russians lost over 3,000 tanks during the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainians' destroyed, damaged, or captured tanks are being replaced mainly by older equipment from post-Soviet warehouses. However, these sources show fewer tanks suitable for recovery and deployment to the front.
7:37 AM EDT, October 31, 2024
"Since the beginning of the war, Russia has lost over 3,000 tanks. Until now, Moscow was able to compensate for these losses with old stock. However, satellite images show that the warehouses are emptying," wrote the German portal.
How many tanks do the Russians still have?
An analysis of satellite images of 16 Russian bases shows that by mid-2024, they will have about 3,600 tanks left. For comparison, in 2021, before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, they had about 6,300 tanks.
At the same time, the Germans estimate that the Russian arms industry, working at full capacity, can supply the army with about 225 new tanks annually. Although initially, the Russians were impressed with their resilience to sanctions and mobilization capabilities, they are currently losing tanks at a rate that makes replacing losses impossible (around 100 tanks monthly).
This is why warehouses are emptying so quickly, where primarily old Soviet-era tanks like the T-64 or T-62 from the 1960s and even older, now archaic T-55/54 tanks were stored for years. Although these types of tanks do not present significant combat capabilities and their crews are not protected even against drones, they are increasingly appearing in reports from the front in Ukraine.
The Russians are running out of T-80 tanks, T-90s are also lacking
The situation with the T-80, reputed to be the best tank of the USSR, is particularly dire for the Russians. The Germans indicate that the number of such machines in Russian warehouses has decreased by almost 80 percent.
At the same time, the Russians no longer have any tanks from the T-90 family "in reserve." These are the best machines they have been using during the war in Ukraine, among which the newest are the T-90M tanks equipped with a 2A46M-5 125 mm gun with an improved fire control system and auxiliary armaments in the form of two machine guns (cal. approximately 0.3 inches and cal. approximately 0.5 inches). Their designs have been reinforced with modular reactive armor Relikt. In July this year, it was confirmed that the number of T-90M tanks lost in Ukraine exceeded 100 units.
