Could Russia Run Out of Tanks in Ukraine? That Idea Isn’t Crazy Anymore

Russia’s Tanks Are Getting Slaughtered in Ukraine: At the start of this year, Russia had a tank force of more than 10,000 tanks – including thousands that were in storage. That number is now considerably smaller and diminishing by the day as the Kremlin continues to lose tanks in its unprovoked war in Ukraine.

A great irony is that in April, a question being asked by military analysts was whether Ukraine would run out of anti-tank weapons before Russia ran out of tanks. Moreover, there were even concerns that the United States was facing a shortage of FGM-148 Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles as so many had been sent to aid Ukraine. However, U.S. production has ramped up and supplies are being replenished, while the same can’t be said of Russia’s tanks.

In fact, Moscow has restored to refurbishing older T-62 tanks and has deployed hundreds or more to Ukraine. Not surprisingly, the “geriatric” tanks haven’t fared well on the battlefield, and Ukraine has reportedly captured enough that it could create an entire T-62 tank battalion.

Half of Russia’s Tank Force Destroyed in Ukraine

The situation certainly isn’t getting better for Moscow, and this week, Pentagon officials suggested that Russia has lost half its tanks, used most of its precision-guided weapons, and suffered tens of thousands of casualties. It is also continuing to lose ground.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl suggested Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has failed.”

“Russia will emerge from this war weaker than it went in,” Kahl told reporters. “They have suffered tens of thousands of casualties in eight months — orders of magnitude more than [the Soviet Union] experienced in Afghanistan in 10 years.”

Kahl also said that the Pentagon has estimated that the Kremlin has probably lost half of its main battle tanks, and has seen more than 80 percent of its land forces bogged down in Ukraine. In addition, Moscow has “spent down a majority of their precision guided munitions in Ukraine, and the sanctions and export controls will make it very difficult for them to rebuild their military to what it looked like before the war.”

The war could be described as a “massive strategic failure,” and the situation is only getting worse.

Another Tank Column Destroyed

Russia’s forces have failed to learn from past mistakes in the war and continued to pay with men and material. That much was evident in a video clip posted to social media on Wednesday that has been viewed more than 130,000 times. It showed a Russian vehicle column on a narrow road coming under attack and being largely destroyed.

“This is how the suicidal attacks of Russian columns look like. It was the ninth month of the war,” Ukrainian war correspondent Ian Matveev (@ian_matveev) tweeted.

Вот так выглядят самоубийственные атаки российских колонн. Шел девятый месяц войны pic.twitter.com/zwSYhi1VYY

— IanMatveev (@ian_matveev) November 8, 2022

This was just the latest such video to go viral – highlighting how social media has changed the way that wars can be seen by the world. It also showed the continued folly of Russia’s forces and helps explain how the Kremlin is now losing upwards of 10 main battle tanks daily.

The losses are so great that the question is now whether Russia could ever hope to recover from the conflict. It will be weakened for years if not decades, by the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s T-90 tanks. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,000 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.

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