A prominent research center announced today, Tuesday, that Russia has lost over 3,000 tanks in Ukraine, which equals its total stockpile prior to the war. However, it has enough low-quality armored vehicles stored. The International Institute for Strategic Studies stated that Ukraine has also incurred heavy losses since the Russian invasion in February 2022, but Western resupply of its military has allowed it to maintain its stocks while improving quality.
Even after losing many tanks, including about 1,120 last year, Russia still has nearly double the number of tanks available for combat compared to Ukraine, according to the annual military balance report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, an essential research tool for defense analysts.
Henry Boyd, a military capabilities specialist at the institute, stated that Russia has nearly reached a "tipping point" regarding replacements and estimated that it introduced approximately 1,000 to 1,500 additional tanks into service last year. However, he noted that at most 200 of these are newly manufactured, while the vast majority are older models that have been updated.
The report remarked, "Moscow has managed to trade quality for quantity... by pulling thousands of old tanks from storage at a rate that sometimes reaches 90 tanks per month." Russian stocks enable Moscow to "endure heavy losses for about three more years and renew tanks, even if to lower technical standards, regardless of its ability to produce new equipment." The Russian Ministry of Defense declined to comment.
