Russia's tank fleet devastated: 8,000 units destroyed in Ukraine
The Ukrainians reportedly destroyed 8,000 Russian tanks since the war began. We present which constructions the Russians lost most frequently.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported the destruction of up to 8,000 Russian tanks. This is a significant number, exceeding, for instance, the 3,153 wrecks verified by photos or recordings cataloged by groups like oryxspioenkop. The discrepancy is because only some of the destruction of Russian equipment has been captured in publicly available recordings.
Meanwhile, the actual number of destroyed Russian tanks could be more than double that. Even if Ukrainians inflate Russian losses for propaganda, their numbers might still be closer to reality than Russian data.
The Russian stock of modern tanks is a shadow of what it was before 2022
According to the report The Military Balance, Russia's armoured forces included about 3,000 tanks and roughly 7,000 tanks from the T-72 family at the time of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, alongside 3,000 tanks in the mobilization reserve.
Due to their losses in Ukraine, Russians are retrieving massive amounts of armoured equipment from storage, evidenced by the destroyed units. For example, according to Oryx's list, Russians have lost at least 826 T-72B3 and B3M tanks, which comprise most of the relatively modern Russian tanks on the front. Before the war, Russia had about 1,720 of these units in total.
The T-72B3 tanks are a light modernization of the Soviet-era T-72B tanks from 2011. They feature the modern Sosna-U fire control system with a French thermal imaging camera and an adapted loading automatic for longer Svieniec shells. Additionally, the tanks had consumable elements replaced, and the reactive armour was unified to Kontakt-5 during the rebuild.
More significant changes were applied to the T-72B3M tanks produced since 2016. For instance, the commander got a panoramic sight, enabling the crew to operate in hunter-killer mode. This mode allows the commander to direct the gun to the target faster than the gunner’s action. Additionally, the tank received a new two-layer Relikt reactive armour. Russians also lost at least 97 units of the latest T-90M tanks, which, considering wartime production, had over 100 units.
The current Russian armored potential - turning into a historical reenactment of the USSR
The Russians quickly attempted to compensate for the losses by refurbishing stored T-72B or older T-72A/AW units (visually confirmed 451 losses). However, it soon turned out that the stored units might have been in poor technical condition or were looted for spare parts (the T-72 family of tanks is popular worldwide). At some point, there was a rapid increase in the presence and destruction of T-80BW tanks on the front, of which the Ukrainians ultimately destroyed at least 569 units.
There were even instances of the Russians sending T-54/55 tanks, T-62s, or the first T-72 Ural to the front. Many experts estimate that the Russian repair base inherited from the USSR will be exhausted by the end of 2025 or 2026, making it impossible for Russia to quantitatively replace the losses. Therefore, ensuring that arms supplies are sent to Ukraine for at least another two years is critical.
