Pictures from the war in Ukraine are said to show that over 1,000 Russian tanks have been destroyed or lost in Ukraine. It emerges from analyzes carried out by fact-checkers from the organization Oryx. Oryx is an independent organization that analyzes casualty figures in international conflicts. They have mapped Russian military losses since the start of the war in Ukraine. In comparison, Russia lost around 210 tanks in the wars in Chechnya in the 1990s. In the war in Georgia in 2008, Russia is said to have lost just under three tanks. A family visits destroyed tanks outside Kyiv. A father and son examine the remains of a destroyed Russian tank in Dmytrivka, outside Kyiv. A man smokes a cigarette among destroyed Russian tanks in Kyiv in April. Compared to the Second World War – These are massive losses, says Palle Ydstebø, lieutenant colonel and head teacher at the War College. – We have to go back to the real major operations in the Second World War to find something to compare with. The destroyed tanks join the series of significant losses on the Russian side since the start of the war in Ukraine. Up to 80,000 Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded, according to US authorities. Of these, 20,000 must have been killed. Around 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers are also said to have been killed in the war. The Ukrainian authorities, for their part, claim that the Russian loss figures are twice as high. Over 2,000 tanks have been destroyed, the Ukrainian General Staff announced at the weekend. The losses of tanks are very high, explains defense expert Palle Ydstebø. But since Russia has large reserves, the losses can be replaced. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB Russia can withstand the losses Palle Ydstebø believes, however, that Russia can withstand these losses. – They have up to 3,000 tanks in service, and around 10,000 in stock. So they manage to replace this, he says. Whether these work at all, however, is another matter, explains Ydstebø. – There is great uncertainty about the condition of the tanks in storage, he says. Russia has several times shown off its tanks in grand parades. But large parts of the country’s vehicle fleet consist of old or rusty tanks. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP Many have been stored for a very long time, often under poor conditions. And many are old models from the Soviet era. The majority of the destroyed tanks must be of the type T-72B and T-72B3, according to the fact-checkers from Oryx. About half of these will be old models from the Soviet Union. 22 tanks of the newer model T-90 are also said to have been lost. It has previously been reported that Russian tanks also have a weakness that makes them particularly vulnerable. Russian tanks store ammunition under the cannon. If hit, the entire tank can go airborne. Ukrainian forces are also suffering heavy losses. Here, hijacked Ukrainian tanks are inspected by soldiers from the Luhansk People’s Republic in July. Photo: AP The casualty figures are increasing Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive for the past week. Fierce fighting has taken place in Donbass and in the southern part of the country around the city of Kherson. Ydstebø from Krigsskolen points out that the casualty figures on both sides have increased sharply in recent weeks. – Ukrainian forces are now trying to destroy as large Russian forces as possible, he says. The aim is not to take ground, he believes, but rather to destroy equipment, supply lines and command posts. – If they manage to destroy the forces to the extent that they are unable to offer resistance, then the terrain eventually falls by itself.
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