Russia’s current equipment losses highest since 2022

Russia lost nearly 700 tanks, vehicles, and aircraft last month, Newsweek reports, citing an analysis of Oryx’s data, amid Moscow’s pre-winter offensive.

Nov 5, 2024 - 13:00

Russia’s current equipment losses highest since 2022

Russian military corruption

Analysis of the Oryx Project’s data, which tracks visually confirmed Ukrainian and Russian military hardware losses, shows Russian forces in Ukraine experienced their highest rate of destroyed or captured assets in over two years this October 2024, Newsweek reports.

Since the all-out war began on 24 February 2022, the Oryx Blog project has tracked Russian equipment losses through verified images, noting that strict proof standards mean actual losses are “significantly higher.” Russia’s current losses can be attributed to Moscow’s intensified efforts to capture territory before the mud season, regardless of cost.

The independent Russian outlet Agentstvo Novosti reported that, based on Oryx data, Russia lost 695 pieces of equipment to destruction, damage, abandonment, or capture last month. The losses included 253 infantry fighting vehicles, 103 tanks, and 41 armored personnel carriers. Additionally, Russia lost 4 aircraft – 2 Sukhoi Su-25 and Su-34 fighter jets, as well as a Mi-28 helicopter.

The previous high point was in October 2022, when 1,032 units were lost, following Ukraine’s counteroffensive that led to Russian retreats from Kherson and Kharkiv. In September 2022, at the height of Ukraine’s Kharkiv counteroffensive, Russia suffered its single highest monthly loss of 1,179 units of equipment.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has provided even higher estimates of Russian equipment losses in October, claiming that 903 armored fighting vehicles were destroyed – the highest monthly total since March 2022.

Despite the heavy toll on its equipment, Russia continues to make incremental gains, especially in Donetsk Oblast. Vuk Vuksanovic, an associate at the London School of Economics’ LSE IDEAS think tank, told Newsweek that this showed Moscow’s “battlefield momentum.”

“Instead of trying to gain new territory rapidly, the Russians engaged in a patient, slow, grinding campaign where they knew that their preponderance in artillery and firepower and Ukrainian demographic deficit would sooner or later result in the collapse of the Ukrainian line,” Vuksanovic said.

On 4 November, Oryx’s blog administrator, Jakub Janovsky, noted that Russia’s visually-confirmed losses of T-80 series tanks have exceeded 1,000 since the start of the invasion. This includes variants such as the T-80B, T-80BV, T-80BVM, and others.

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