Ukraine Destroys Three Russian Tank Battalions in a Single Week: Kyiv
Nov 27, 2023 at 7:09 AM EST
By Ellie Cook
Security & Defense Reporter
Ukrainian forces have destroyed three Russian tank battalions in the war-torn country, according to the Ukrainian military, as mounting Russian vehicle losses show few signs of slowing in the grueling fall and winter conditions.
Between November 20 and 26, Ukraine's military destroyed 81 tanks, making up approximately three Russian tank battalions, according to an update from Ukraine's military communications platform on Monday. Around 5,760 Russian soldiers were taken out of action in the same time frame, as well as 108 armored vehicles, according to Kyiv.
On Monday, the General Staff of Ukraine's military said Russia had lost seven tanks in the previous 24 hours, bringing Kyiv's tally of total Russian tank losses to 5,520 since February 2022, when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. Last week, Kyiv said Russia lost 30 tanks in a single day as Moscow refuses to relent around the embattled Donetsk town of Avdiivka.
Smoke rises from a Russian tank destroyed by Ukrainian forces, on the side of a road in Luhansk region on February 26, 2022. Ukrainian forces have destroyed three Russian tank battalions in the war-torn country, according to the Ukrainian military.ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGESNewsweek couldn't independently verify these statistics, and has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.
Both sides have run up heavy equipment losses in the 21 months of all-out war, not least among stocks of main battle tanks.
Although it's difficult to get a clear picture of the scale of both sides' equipment losses, Western experts largely suggest the Ukrainian military's figures are likely to be close to the mark.
Ukraine's Soviet-era fleet of main battle tanks has been supplemented by battalions of Western-made tanks, including Berlin's Leopards, the British Challenger 2s and the U.S. Army's M1 Abrams.
The Kremlin said on Sunday that its forces had taken out a Ukrainian tank in an unspecified part of the eastern Donetsk region, as well as another tank in Ukraine's annexed southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine has lost a total of 13,629 tanks and other armored combat vehicles in the 21 months of war, Russia added, but it didn't detail how many main battle tanks are included in the tally.
It hasn't been possible to independently verify Russia's count. The Ukrainian military declined to comment on Russia's figures.
When Ukraine reported that Russian tank losses would surpass 4,000 in mid-June, experts told Newsweek that Moscow had been plagued by organizational and planning failures among its tank crews, poor training regimes and unmotivated troops struggling on after the best were wiped out in the first waves of the war.
In recent months, Russian tank losses are thought to have been significant around Avdiivka, which has spent almost a decade on the front lines.
Ukrainian commanders reported a new push around Avdiivka from Russian troops last week, although the efforts likely came with "weaker mechanized capabilities than in the previous offensive waves that occurred in October," the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said on Friday.
The past six weeks have "likely seen some of the highest Russian casualty rates of the war so far," the British defense ministry said on Monday, adding that this is down to Russia's designs on Avdiivka.
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