The Ukrainian Army Has More Tanks Now Than When the War Began—Because It Keeps Capturing Them From Russia

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The Ukrainian Army Has More Tanks Now Than When the War Began

Because It Keeps Capturing Them From Russia

24 Mar 2022 ~~ By David Axe

Ukraine has lost at least 74 tanks—destroyed or captured—since Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23.
But Ukraine has captured at least 117 Russian tanks, according to open-source-intelligence analysts who scrutinize photos and videos on social media.
In other words, the Ukrainian army might actually have more tanks now than a month ago—all without building a single brand-new tank or pulling some older vehicle out of storage.
The Russians meanwhile have captured at least 37 Ukrainian tanks—a sum inadequate to compensate for the roughly 274 tanks it is believed to have lost to all causes.
The disparity in captured tanks speaks to Russia’s lack of preparation for a high-intensity war against a determined foe. But it also speaks to the advantages any defender possesses over any attacker.
Russia must project forces into Ukraine scores or hundreds of miles, extending poorly-protected supply lines and risking front-line units running out of ammunition and fuel. Many of those tanks the Ukrainians have seized were just sitting there, out of gas, their crews having fled.
~Snip~
The steady transfer to Ukraine, via captures, of hundreds upon hundreds of tanks, fighting vehicles, artillery, air-defense systems and trucks underlines the challenge Russia faces in achieving any of its strategic objectives in Ukraine.
The Kremlin realistically can’t kill its way to victory. Not as long as Ukraine, population 44 million, possesses reserves of human capital—and as long as the Ukrainians remain united in the defense of their homeland.
It’s telling that, at the same time Russia was begging Syria for a thousand mercenaries last week, Ukraine was mobilizing reserve echelons numbering 150,000 fresh troops.
Those reservists probably aren’t hurting for equipment. Many of them will fall in on some ex-Russian T-72, scrubbed clean of any evidence of its old crew and sporting freshly painted Ukrainian insignia.

Commentary:
Putin's military forces are fighting the wrong war. Their mentality is still fighting a European WW II war.
The Russian military leaders have no imagination. Typically, they shell positions, attack in large formations, and when their assaults failed, do it all over again.
They have misled their troops from the beginning.
"Russian doctrine relies on centralized command and control, while mission-style command and control—as the name suggests—relies on the individual initiative of every soldier, from the private to the general, not only to understand the mission but then to use their initiative to adapt to the exigencies of a chaotic and ever-changing battlefield in order to accomplish that mission. Although the Russian military has modernized under Vladimir Putin, it has never embraced the decentralized mission-style command-and-control structure that is the hallmark of NATO militaries, and that the Ukrainians have since adopted".
Is it conceivable that Ukraine forces are out fighting and making gains. Yes! They've begun gaining lost territory and capturing equipment from Russian attackers.
 
Yep, and the Russian leaders of this war have so badly screwed up in following Putin that some of their own troops are wanting to run them over with tanks. Matter of fact, one Russian soldier did just that..........................


A Russian soldier reportedly drove over his colonel with a tank — while two other service members were caught venting about strongman Vladimir Putin’s “bulls—” invasion of Ukraine amid reports of heavy losses.

The Russian soldier who was behind the wheel of the tank “blamed the commander of the group, Col. Yury Medvedev, for the deaths of his friends,” Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsimbalyuk said on Facebook.

“Having waited for the right moment, during battle, he ran over the commander with a tank as he stood next to him, injuring both his legs,” he wrote, the Daily Beast reported.
 
If history is any indication...

... Russians don't run out of equipment and don't give a damn about soldier's lives.

... two very definite advantages in a war of attrition.
 
If history is any indication...

... Russians don't run out of equipment and don't give a damn about soldier's lives.

... two very definite advantages in a war of attrition.

This guy is giving a pretty accurate daily update. 7-15 thousand KIA Russians.

 
So you haven't seen the videos of Russian tanks running out of petrol, being abandoned, and then towed away by the Ukrainian farmers with their tractors?

I shit you not.
I saw parts of one video... A tank weighs at least 40 tons.
Not sure what kind of tractor can do that. Probably wouldn't be a typical farm tractor though.

Jo
 
I saw parts of one video... A tank weighs at least 40 tons.
Not sure what kind of tractor can do that. Probably wouldn't be a typical farm tractor though.

Jo
Regular old john deere hauling ass down the street.
 
Regular old john deere hauling ass down the street.
Not 40 tons....not on typical non paved terrain....
Ok... Finally found the video clip. It's a paved road and a pretty good sized tractor. The first thing that occurs to me is how did the farmer get the tank out of an idle position? Tanks like every other vehicle that moves have transmissions. You ain't moving that thing unless it's drivetrain is free. I see what appears to be a Russian soldier running after the two vehicles... But he has no weapon. That doesn't make any sense to me. Don't get me wrong I don't actually have a side in this conflict that I favor I just wish the whole thing never happened. But I'm highly suspicious of all of these claims. Are we terribly sure the tank motor is not also engaged? Where the hell was the soldier while the farmer spent at least a half an hour strapping up the tank? It was only one soldier? A typical tank crew is three... They usually carry sidearms at the very least. Now that doesn't mean the footage isn't genuine... There are just too many unanswered questions here that would have to be taken on faith not to question whether or not it was staged. To my knowledge that is the only video of such an incident and it was hard to find actually.
 
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If history is any indication...

... Russians don't run out of equipment and don't give a damn about soldier's lives.

... two very definite advantages in a war of attrition.

Then how do you explain the following:

A 60% Dud Rate for Precision-Guided Munitions Explains a Lot of Russia's Problems in Ukraine​

24 Mar 2022 ~~ By Streiff

Thursday, US intelligence officials leaked a classified assessment about the performance of Russian precision-guided munitions in the Ukraine invasion.
The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60% for some of the precision-guided missiles it is using to attack Ukraine, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence told Reuters.
The disclosure could help explain why Russia has failed to achieve what most could consider basic objectives since its invasion a month ago, such as neutralizing Ukraine’s air force, despite the apparent strength of its military against Ukraine’s much smaller armed forces. The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information, did not provide evidence to support the assessment and did not disclose what precisely was driving high Russian missile failure rates.
One of the staples on social media accounts reporting from Ukraine has been the very high rate of cruise missiles that have failed to detonate.


**********

If this report is accurate, it speaks to massive manufacturing and possibly engineering design problems in the Russian arms industry.

Commentary:
I don’t find this that surprising. During the Cold War the Russians always had inferior equipment.
Stalin claimed that quantity had a quality all its own. They’ve always relied on brute force and bigger explosions over finesse and high tech. No one should be shocked that now that they don’t have Soviet-level defense spending things are about the same as they were.
Then again after what we've recently learned about the veracity of our Intelligence community (Specifically the fifty that claimed the Hunter Laptop was disinformation). Are we now to believe them?
 
I saw parts of one video... A tank weighs at least 40 tons.
Not sure what kind of tractor can do that. Probably wouldn't be a typical farm tractor though.

Jo

~~~~~~
I don't know about that. I pulled a fully loaded 12-wheeler truck filled with #2 stone over 3/4 of a mile 4 years ago using a 20/40 John Deere 3-cylinder diesel. with no problem.
 
~~~~~~
I don't know about that. I pulled a fully loaded 12-wheeler truck filled with #2 stone over 3/4 of a mile 4 years ago using a 20/40 John Deere 3-cylinder diesel. with no problem.
Hydro-drive?
 
Then how do you explain the following:

A 60% Dud Rate for Precision-Guided Munitions Explains a Lot of Russia's Problems in Ukraine​

24 Mar 2022 ~~ By Streiff

Thursday, US intelligence officials leaked a classified assessment about the performance of Russian precision-guided munitions in the Ukraine invasion.
The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60% for some of the precision-guided missiles it is using to attack Ukraine, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence told Reuters.
The disclosure could help explain why Russia has failed to achieve what most could consider basic objectives since its invasion a month ago, such as neutralizing Ukraine’s air force, despite the apparent strength of its military against Ukraine’s much smaller armed forces. The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information, did not provide evidence to support the assessment and did not disclose what precisely was driving high Russian missile failure rates.
One of the staples on social media accounts reporting from Ukraine has been the very high rate of cruise missiles that have failed to detonate.


**********

If this report is accurate, it speaks to massive manufacturing and possibly engineering design problems in the Russian arms industry.

Commentary:
I don’t find this that surprising. During the Cold War the Russians always had inferior equipment.
Stalin claimed that quantity had a quality all its own. They’ve always relied on brute force and bigger explosions over finesse and high tech. No one should be shocked that now that they don’t have Soviet-level defense spending things are about the same as they were.
Then again after what we've recently learned about the veracity of our Intelligence community (Specifically the fifty that claimed the Hunter Laptop was disinformation). Are we now to believe them?

Poor quality russian munitions is most likely due to graft and corruption
 
Then how do you explain the following:

A 60% Dud Rate for Precision-Guided Munitions Explains a Lot of Russia's Problems in Ukraine​

24 Mar 2022 ~~ By Streiff

Thursday, US intelligence officials leaked a classified assessment about the performance of Russian precision-guided munitions in the Ukraine invasion.
The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60% for some of the precision-guided missiles it is using to attack Ukraine, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence told Reuters.
The disclosure could help explain why Russia has failed to achieve what most could consider basic objectives since its invasion a month ago, such as neutralizing Ukraine’s air force, despite the apparent strength of its military against Ukraine’s much smaller armed forces. The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information, did not provide evidence to support the assessment and did not disclose what precisely was driving high Russian missile failure rates.
One of the staples on social media accounts reporting from Ukraine has been the very high rate of cruise missiles that have failed to detonate.


**********

If this report is accurate, it speaks to massive manufacturing and possibly engineering design problems in the Russian arms industry.

Commentary:
I don’t find this that surprising. During the Cold War the Russians always had inferior equipment.
Stalin claimed that quantity had a quality all its own. They’ve always relied on brute force and bigger explosions over finesse and high tech. No one should be shocked that now that they don’t have Soviet-level defense spending things are about the same as they were.
Then again after what we've recently learned about the veracity of our Intelligence community (Specifically the fifty that claimed the Hunter Laptop was disinformation). Are we now to believe them?

Well I did read in one news article that there are mass jailings going on right now from the top down in their equivalent of the defense department.
Some of these people are probably heading for execution.
 

The Ukrainian Army Has More Tanks Now Than When the War Began

Because It Keeps Capturing Them From Russia

24 Mar 2022 ~~ By David Axe

Ukraine has lost at least 74 tanks—destroyed or captured—since Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23.
But Ukraine has captured at least 117 Russian tanks, according to open-source-intelligence analysts who scrutinize photos and videos on social media.
In other words, the Ukrainian army might actually have more tanks now than a month ago—all without building a single brand-new tank or pulling some older vehicle out of storage.
The Russians meanwhile have captured at least 37 Ukrainian tanks—a sum inadequate to compensate for the roughly 274 tanks it is believed to have lost to all causes.
The disparity in captured tanks speaks to Russia’s lack of preparation for a high-intensity war against a determined foe. But it also speaks to the advantages any defender possesses over any attacker.
Russia must project forces into Ukraine scores or hundreds of miles, extending poorly-protected supply lines and risking front-line units running out of ammunition and fuel. Many of those tanks the Ukrainians have seized were just sitting there, out of gas, their crews having fled.
~Snip~
The steady transfer to Ukraine, via captures, of hundreds upon hundreds of tanks, fighting vehicles, artillery, air-defense systems and trucks underlines the challenge Russia faces in achieving any of its strategic objectives in Ukraine.
The Kremlin realistically can’t kill its way to victory. Not as long as Ukraine, population 44 million, possesses reserves of human capital—and as long as the Ukrainians remain united in the defense of their homeland.
It’s telling that, at the same time Russia was begging Syria for a thousand mercenaries last week, Ukraine was mobilizing reserve echelons numbering 150,000 fresh troops.
Those reservists probably aren’t hurting for equipment. Many of them will fall in on some ex-Russian T-72, scrubbed clean of any evidence of its old crew and sporting freshly painted Ukrainian insignia.

Commentary:
Putin's military forces are fighting the wrong war. Their mentality is still fighting a European WW II war.
The Russian military leaders have no imagination. Typically, they shell positions, attack in large formations, and when their assaults failed, do it all over again.
They have misled their troops from the beginning.
"Russian doctrine relies on centralized command and control, while mission-style command and control—as the name suggests—relies on the individual initiative of every soldier, from the private to the general, not only to understand the mission but then to use their initiative to adapt to the exigencies of a chaotic and ever-changing battlefield in order to accomplish that mission. Although the Russian military has modernized under Vladimir Putin, it has never embraced the decentralized mission-style command-and-control structure that is the hallmark of NATO militaries, and that the Ukrainians have since adopted".
Is it conceivable that Ukraine forces are out fighting and making gains. Yes! They've begun gaining lost territory and capturing equipment from Russian attackers.
And the Ukrainians won't find spare parts for their "slightly used" tanks. LOL
 

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