Russia's heavy losses expose vulnerability on the Ukrainian front
The area near Pokrovsk is currently the most challenging segment of the front in Ukraine. Despite their rapid pace, the Russians have suffered equipment losses at least five times greater than the Ukrainians. Here's what both sides have most commonly lost.
The Ukrainians managed to halt the Russian advance on Pokrovsk after losing Avdiivka and the Russian breach near Ocheretyne. However, this did not come without losses, as one of the creators of the Oryxspioenkop group counted 393 vehicles lost by the Ukrainians based on available photos and recordings. This is nearly five times less than the losses suffered by the Russians (1,919 vehicles).
Here's what the Ukrainians most frequently lost — US vehicles lead the list
The most frequently destroyed vehicles on both sides were infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), along with armoured personnel carriers and tanks. Ukraine lost 146 and 95 units respectively, while the Russians lost 1,083 and 554 units.
Among the Ukrainians, the most lost tanks were various versions of the T-64 (35), T-72 (19), and M1A1SA Abrams (16). For the second mentioned class of vehicles, the most losses were the famous M2A2 Bradley (41 units) and BMP-1/2, with at least 34 units lost by the Ukrainians.
High losses of American equipment result from the bold actions of soldiers from the 47th Independent Mechanised Brigade. They are known, among other things, for the famous duel of a Bradley with a T-90M or solo charges of heavily modified Abrams.
It is worth noting, however, that a large number is largely due to the high survivability of American equipment crews. After being hit and evacuated, they can simply board a new vehicle and continue fighting, and it is worth mentioning that the 47th Brigade is one of the few Ukrainian units where morale remains high.
Russian losses — a mass of post-Soviet scrap
Meanwhile, on the Russian side, total BMP losses amount to 543 units, with the most recent BMP-3 accounting for only 116 units. Next are MT-LBs (216) and BTR-80/82 transporters (225). These are vehicles very susceptible even to fire from heavy machine guns loaded with armour-piercing ammunition and, from the front, essentially only BMP offer more protection.
However, they are very vulnerable to attacks by FPV drones, against which jammers may or may not provide protection, depending on the situation. Additionally, armed with armour-piercing ammunition, Western IFVs can precisely target them before the Russians detect them. Particularly deadly are the former Swedish Strf 9040C (CV90), whose 40 mm automatic cannon can shoot BMPs from even 1.5 kilometres.
It's worth noting that upon impact, there is often an explosion of ammunition, resulting in the death of the crew and any transported soldiers. The Russians, unlike the Ukrainians, do not in the smallest degree care for their soldiers, resulting in low survival rates for their assault troops.
The second category of equipment is tanks from the T-72 family (171), ranging from the earliest Ural versions to the new T-72B3, which is the most popular Russian tank equipped with French thermal imaging. Interestingly, Russia lost most of the machines from the T-80 family (184), mainly the BW version (164), which are the variants being restored first from post-Soviet stockpiles.
These are less popular worldwide compared to the T-72 family and were probably the least looted from post-Soviet stockpiles over the last decades, making them the quickest to return to service. The T-80BW is a better-armoured vehicle than, for example, the T-72B, but like other Soviet-era equipment, it lacks good night and thermal vision.
Exceptions are only tanks produced since 2017, such as the T-80BWM, which are a deep overhaul of older versions enriched with a modern fire control system with thermal imaging. Then we have 38 T-90 tanks lost by Russia, both in the T-90A version from the 1990s and the T-90M version introduced just before the invasion of Ukraine. These are currently the newest Russian tanks equipped with a fire control system with thermal imaging and two-layer Relikt reactive armour.
There were also tanks from the T-62 family (44 units) that were usually used as improvised heavily armoured personnel carriers for infantry, having the form of "armoured barns". These tanks were simply covered with nearby scrap metal on a steel frame about half a metre from the armour, designed to detonate cumulative warheads on FPV drones prematurely.
This was quite a practical solution, especially after deploying strong drone jammers with a range of up to half a kilometre. Still, if an "armoured barn" encountered Ukrainians with modern anti-tank weapons such as FGM-148 Javelin launchers or Akeron MP, it turns into a wreck.
With the current level of equipment losses, the Russians will not be able to conduct an offensive, and by 2025, they will run out of tanks for renovation. At that point, a key question will be whether Russia receives hundreds of units of armoured equipment from North Korea.
