Two years have passed since Russia’s military actions against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The military stalemate between Ukraine and Russia appears to be continuing without any end in sight.
According to the annual Military Balance report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Russia has lost over 3,000 armoured fighting vehicles in the past year, including 1,120 main battle tanks (MBTs), and close to 8,800 since the beginning of the conflict. In comparison, Ukraine has lost approximately 650 MBTs.
The IISS suggests that Russia is sacrificing quality for quantity in its replenishment efforts. Destroyed T-90 tanks are being replaced with outdated T-72s or T-62s from Soviet-era stockpiles.
“The equipment that Russia has taken out of these warehouses is at least a generation behind the frontline equipment that they started the war with,” said Ben Barry, a land warfare expert at the IISS.
Ukraine has received 14 Challenger 2 tanks from Britain, 18 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, and 31 M1 Abrams from the United States. These Western MBTs are more advanced and have higher survivability rates than the T-72s and T-62s.
“As far as protection goes, Challenger 2 is very well protected. It would take a number of hits from a T-72, and the crew would survive,” says Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer in the British Army’s Royal Tank Regiment.
The IISS predicts that as Russia’s equipment losses continue to increase, Moscow “could potentially sustain current attrition rates for another two to three years, and maybe even longer”.
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