Russia has lost more than 1,700 tanks in Ukraine

It has been 148 days since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. On Thursday, the Russian military made some marginal territorial gains in parts of the Donbas but has failed to achieve any sort of breakthrough.

The war in Ukraine

In the Donbas, the Russian military resumed its ground attacks against Slovyansk (in the north) and Avdiivka (in the south) and continued with its offensive against Siversk (in the north) and Bakhmut (in the south), where it made some marginal gains.

“The current Russian offensive may secure limited additional territorial gains in Donbas northeast of the E40 highway but will likely culminate before seizing major populated areas such as Slovyansk or Bakhmut,” the Institute for the Study of War assessed.

“Russian forces have not made significant advances towards Slovyansk or along the Siversk-Bakhmut salient in the past few weeks and are continuing to degrade their own offensive combat power in localized fights for small and relatively unimportant settlements throughout Donetsk Oblast. Russian troops have notably been attempting to take Siversk since the capture of Lysychansk and the Luhansk Oblast border on July 3 and have still not reached the city as of July 20,” the Institute for the Study of War added.

On the southern front, in the direction of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian military is setting the conditions for the retaking of the two cities. Launched at about the same time as the Russian offensive in the Donbas, the Ukrainian counteroffensive in this region has reached the outskirts of Kherson. And now, the Ukrainian forces are using their High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to target the Russian lines of communication and supply that lead to Kherson. The Ukrainians have repeatedly targeted the Antonivskyi Bridge, which is the only road that links Kherson to other Russian positions on the rear.

Russian casualties

The Antonivskyi Bridge after a purported HIMARS hit. (Twitter via @thedimsol)

Every day, the Ukrainian military is providing an update on their claimed Russian casualties. These numbers are official figures and haven’t been separately verified.

However, Western intelligence assessments and independent reporting corroborate, to a certain extent, the Ukrainian casualty claims. For example, the Oryx open-source intelligence research page has visually verified the destruction or capture of almost 900 Russian tanks (which amounts to more tanks than the combined armor capabilities of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and more than 4,700 military vehicles of all types; this assessment has been confirmed by the British Ministry of Defense.

The same independent verification exists for most of the other Ukrainian claims. Recently, the Pentagon acknowledged that the Russian military has lost thousands of combat vehicles of all types, including over 1,000 tanks, and dozens of fighter jets and helicopters.

Furthermore, more recent reports that are citing Western intelligence officials indicate that the Russian military has suffered up to 20,000 fatalities in the war so far. Sir Tony Radakin, the British Chief of the Defence Staff, recently told the BBC that the West understands that more than 50,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the conflict thus far. If we were to take the Ukrainian figures as accurate, the number mentioned by Sir Radakin is on the low side of the spectrum.

Yet, it is very hard to verify the actual numbers unless one is on the ground. However, after adjusting for the fog of war and other factors, the Western official numbers are fairly close to the Ukrainian claims.

As of Thursday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is claiming the following Russian casualties:

38,850 Russian troops killed (approximately three times that number wounded and captured)
3,912 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles destroyed
2,781 vehicles and fuel tanks
1,704 tanks
859 artillery pieces
710 tactical unmanned aerial systems
221 fighter, attack, and transport jets
251 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS)
188 attack and transport helicopters
167 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses
113 anti-aircraft batteries
72 special equipment platforms, such as bridging equipment
15 boats and cutters
four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems

Russian tank getting hit in Ukraine — A Russian tank hit by incoming fire. (File photo)

Over the past weeks, the rate of Russian casualties has slowed down despite continuous pressure and offensive operations in the Donbas. This suggests two things: First, the Russian commanders are taking a more cautious approach to their offensive operations, fully utilizing combined arms warfare to achieve their goals; and second, the Ukrainian forces are running out of combat power or ammunition — and this is expected after nearly five months of war against the Russian military. Recent reports from the ground suggest that both of these factors are true, and that the fatigue of warfare is catching up on both sides.

For most of May, the Russian military suffered the greatest casualties around the Slovyansk, Kryvyi Rih, and Zaporizhzhia areas, reflecting the heavy fighting that was going on there. As the days and weeks went on, most of the heavy fighting shifted toward the direction of Bakhmut, southeast of Slovyansk, around Severodonetsk, Lyman, and Lysychansk.

Then the location of the heaviest casualties shifted again westwards toward the area of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — where one of Europe’s largest nuclear plants is located — as a result of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in and around the area.

Then, the concentration of casualties once more shifted back to the Donbas, and especially in and around Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, the two urban centers the Russians managed to capture lately.

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces inflicted the heaviest casualties in the direction of Bakhmut.

The stated goal of the Russian military for the renewed offensive in the east is to establish full control over the pro-Russian breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk and create and maintain a land corridor between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Feature Image: Russian tank trapped after Ukrainians demolished a bridge in Kalynivka (Mykolaiv Oblast) on 2 March 2022. (Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs)