Is Russia at risk of running out of tanks? | DW News
well after more than two years of war in Ukraine speculation is Rife on how much military hardware Russia still has at its disposal open-source investigators orx say more than two and a half thousand Russian tanks have been lost since the beginning of the conflict let’s take a closer look now to see what depleted tank stocks might mean for Russia’s war effort a social media compilation of Ukrainian attacks on Russian tanks using drones mines and anti-tank missiles open- Source investigators say more than 2600 Russian tanks have been lost since the beginning of the war and that’s just going by photographic evidence available to the public the real number may be higher that would leave Russia with just a few hundred tanks from its pre-war stock of about 3,000 but Russia has thousands more tanks in storage some dating back 50 or 60 years these satellite photos show vast storage sites in Siberia hundreds of tanks that were there two years ago are now gone Russia refurbishes dozens of them for the battlefield every month and it has upped its production of new tanks as well in several factories part of a shift in its manufacturing base towards a war economy all these numbers are estimates but the tank math longterm is not in Russia’s favor let’s take a look at how those losses might lead to a critical point where Russia doesn’t have enough tanks to make further advances the Russian army had about 3,000 tanks at the beginning of the war in 2022 if it has lost 2600 in battle it would have 400 left add 1,500 new and repaired tanks a figure supplied by Russia itself would bring the number of available tanks as of May 2024 to a total of 19 00 down from the beginning of the war but still a significant number some analysts however think that Russia is actually producing far fewer tanks than it says no matter what Russia just isn’t making as many tanks as it’s losing so overall it still loses 60 per month so if Russia has 2400 tanks now and overall loses 60 tanks per month over the next two years its stocks will go down to a critical point say 1,000 tanks where it will not be able to risk further losses in trying to gain territory if fighting escalates and it loses tanks faster it could run out even sooner tanks seem old-fashioned but they are critical for breaking through an enemy’s front lines if Russia loses too many it will have to stick to and defend the existing front line without much hope of taking more territory that might mean a stal made on the ground after years of grinding conflict that have cost countless lives let’s get some analysis with military expert Marina Moran Marina good to see you what do you make of the findings of this open-source investigation does it give a realistic picture of Russia’s tank reserves hello Nicole well what we have to understand is not just the number of tanks that Russia has lost and then rep blished with 1 and a half th000 according to the Russian Ministry of defense for 2023 uh we have to understand the Russian capability of manufacturing new tanks amid sanctions um the the ability to refurbish the old tanks and the speed with which it is done that is one factor and the other factor which is of course important is the adaptation on the battlefield that being said it doesn’t mean that if Russia was let’s say losing tanks a month is going to continue losing tanks at the very same rate and we know why Russia has been losing tanks and mostly it’s because of the firstperson view drones which have become very lethal and imposed great costs on the Russian armed forces in terms of the loss of military equipment and now we’re seeing adaptation the famous turtle tank for instance in order to defend against drones so can we project fact that Russia will be losing the same amount of Tanks or will it reduce and I think that will be the critical point that being said still many experts believe that Russia will have enough tanks for the upcoming two years um to continue the war of attration our report also noted that without tanks Russia could only defend territory it already occupies is that an assessment that you would agree with or could they rely on other means to break through front lines well I think both armies have been quite inventive in this conflict and um for a for an example here let’s look at what the Ukrainian Armed Forces did in robotin and Russian forces did it in several parts it’s not the most ideal way but they There Were Soldiers um on foot in small groups approaching robotin and so I think that of course tanks are very important but you can get around it it will of course slower the offensive and it will not give you the same amount of Firepower if you let’s say use infantry um fighting Vehicles instead of Tanks however I don’t think that it is completely off the table so you will have to look how to offset your vulnerabilities and I think before Russia Runs Out Of Tanks I’m sure that um the Kremlin will look for potential sources to Source perhaps old Soviet era tanks which can then be refurbished so I don’t think that it will come to that point that they will have no tanks left and then will have to find a different way to um take territory Marina we all know Vladimir Putin is meeting with Kim Jong-un today does North Korea have tanks to give to Russia briefly if you can yes North Korea has TKS whether it’s enough to give to Russia it has the old Soviet prototypes um t50 t55 and then it has some Chinese tanks and the new m220 all together according to public publicly available data there are 3,000 tanks that North Korea has I think Russia is more after artillery ammunitions and tanks when it comes to North Korea as military expert Marina Moran great speaking to you as always thank you so much thank you for having me
After more than two years of war in Ukraine – speculation is rife on how much military hardware Russia still has at its disposal. Open-source investigators Oryx say more than 2,500 Russian tanks have been lost since the beginning of the conflict.
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36 comments
One only country fight against 55 terrorist countries all Nato members alone and still they cannot beat Russian legends
unfortunately, russia and putin will always find a way to get more tanks, build more tanks, and throw more people into the fight. i do NOT think we can count on russia "running out of" tanks…or soldiers, for that matter. russia made over 116,000 tanks during WWII, and there is nothing stopping them from being able to do the same thing 80 years later…if a stronger and weaker russia can do that then, they sure as heck have the ability to do it now.
Интересно что вы будете рассказывать людям в следующем году, когда танки у России снова не закончатся, а наоборот их станет больше?
Western media also said the same thing abt Russian missiles running out within one year of war and that was in 2022😂😂
The West produces 20 tanks per month, Russia produces 100
….the experienced, trained cews, the crews are the crux, not the tanks….
👍 from London x
But they have enough shovels.
Russia have by far the larges Tank stocks in the world
A reported 2000 in operation with atleast another 6 to 8 thousand in open storage
For one Russia tank,ukraine lose 57 tanks,depleted already for that matter while Russia produce more tanks monthly than Nato combined and the world wonder what happened to the game changers like mr abram,bradley,leopard or challenger tanks.
They have started again 😂😂😂 first it was Russia has shortage of missiles 😂😂 now it's tanks 😂😂
2600 tanks or 2600 armoured vehicules?
One thing is tanks, other is armoured vehicles. They have many but maaaaaany of those. Also this is like when western media stated more than a year ago that Russia was running out of ammo
Terrible piece, Russia had way more than 3,000 tanks before the war. Do your research.
No tanks, no missles, no drones, no men, just shovels 😂
is this an expert? She forgets that Ukraine is ramping up the number of FPV's so that tanks will be obsolete!
I think other factors will end this war before the Ruzzians run out of tanks. Both the Ukrainians as well as the Russians could crumble IMHO.
For the Russians, economic collapse could be an issue – the Russian economy is on it's last legs according to some sources. It sounds quite believable, considering Russia wasn't an economic power house in the first place and this war was astronomically costly so far. Their civilian sector is underfunded like there is no tomorrow.
The Ukrainians could lose by running out of manpower, as they already are.
What a miserable slugfest this is…😢
I feel sorry for the experts.They need to lie to make a living.
DW with the same narrative, come on, no more cards to play right ????????
half the time news channels show russia is losing and the other half time news channel show Russia is winning and their economy is not getting affected
if it wasnt for their nukes Russia will be long gone by now NATO would have invaded with no problem
God bless Ukraine ,the table has turned
I uh, I got an idea! What if, uh, Russia would just like… Leave Ukraine?
Problem solved right?
Russia will never run out of tanks troops or any other military hardware.
Western analysts 😂😂😂😂😂
These guys have been saying russia will run out of munitions by Easter 2022. And they're still talking about how much left😅😅😅😅
How is underestimating your enemy is a good strategy!?
Ok… But what's the situation on the "good guy" side? Does Ukraine even make tanks? Sometimes I think the focus on Russian losses is misleading. It's obviously only part of the story.
Both the report and the "military expert" in studio assume that 100% of Russia's new and refurbished tanks are available for deployment in Ukraine and that Russia has no other military obligations which require tanks. This is false. Russia cannot completely strip its borders with NATO and with China bare, nor can it deprive its peacekeeping obligations in Azerbaijan/Armenia of tanks. Further, the "military expert" Marina only notes that Russia's losses might decrease if it adapts better to FPV drones. While this is true, she does not mention that losses should increase as Russia dips further into its reserves, restoring ever-older and and less capable tanks. Putting T-62s or even T-55s on the battlefield will yield higher losses than T-80s.
Dw today: Russia running out of tanks
Dwtommorow:Russia has manufactured more than 2000 new tanks 😂
Nonsense
I bet that if I look down in the threads I’ll find the russian troll that claims that russia just lost 100 tanks in the whole war but produces 1000 tanks a month 😂😂😂
I thought Ukraine was winning this war and that Russians were fighting with showels.
Nonsense
According to DW, they should have been running out of tanks two years ago… Nevertheless German citizens have to buy everytime more and more tanks for Ukraine… As matter of fact, perhaps is Germany who is gonna run out of tanks.
How many times have we heard this type of story "the Russians are about to run out of…" before? Sorry but it's a little old, especially as every time such a story airs, we then find out that the Russians have more than ever and have conquered dozens more square kilometers of Ukraine.