Russia has allegedly lost more than 1,000 of its tanks in six months of conflict

Russian troops have lost more than a thousand tanks in the six months of its aggression over Ukrainian territory, Defence Blog has reported.

On February 24 when Russian troops began crossing over the border of Ukraine, little did anybody think that the conflict would go on for months. With a massive advantage of the sheer number of troops, military equipment, and technology, the Russian 'special operation' should not have even lasted weeks.

Yet, here we are, more than six months into the conflict, and the stiff resolution of the Ukrainian troops has ensured that the Russian advances look pale in comparison to the perceived Russian might. Reports quantifying the Russian losses paint even a grim picture of the realities on the ground for the Russian troops.

Losing 1,000 tanks

Some of you following the conflict might remember that the Pentagon cited this number back in the month of May. Those were estimates made by Pentagon back then, and we do not have a revised estimate from the department post that. Considering that the conflict is still ongoing and there isn't an independent source that can verify these numbers, we need to take them with a pinch of salt.

If you would ask the Russian side for an estimate, you would get a lower number, while the Ukrainians will definitely put the number higher. There are multiple open-source intelligence analysts who are working to get data as close to reality as possible, and Oryx Blog is one of them.

On their site, you can expect to find not only the numbers of military equipment that have been destroyed, abandoned, or captured but also photographic evidence for each unit listed. The site has details classified into categories such as tanks, fight vehicles, artillery, armored personnel carriers, guns, rocket launchers, drones, helicopters, radars and communication systems, and much more.

According to the site, 1,008 tanks have been lost so far, of which 627 have been destroyed, 42 damaged, 51 abandoned, and 288 captured. This also includes a T-90 M tank, Russia's newest and most advanced tank that was deployed for a mere couple of weeks before being destroyed by Ukrainian troops.

What does it mean for Russia?

In the early days of the conflict, we reported how Russia seemed to be losing a lot of tanks in the conflict. This was attributed to a few factors, such as poor upkeep of these fighting machines, which largely hailed from the Soviet era, the lack of infantry and air support as well as the Ukrainian defense that was empowered by the munitions and drones supplied by the West.

Unlike the air defenses that it consolidated, Russia has failed to come up with an effective strategy to limit the losses of its tanks. However, with the conflict now limited to a specific area in the east, Russia may not need to expose its tanks as much as it did earlier.

Nevertheless, as Pentagon said in May, in terms of people and weapons, Russia has a very large number of assets that it can dedicate to its effort, and the scales remain tilted in Russia's favor due to this.

It is likely that Russia can continue its attack for a longer time to come without straining its resources. We cannot say the same about Ukraine.