Russia lost more than 50 artillery systems and armored personnel vehicles in Ukraine in the past day, along with 27 tanks, according to Ukraine’s military, as Kyiv stares down a new Russian summer offensive without concrete promises of fresh U.S. military aid.
Russian forces have lost a total of 7,074 tanks in more than 25 months of full-scale war, according to new figures published by Ukraine’s military on Sunday. Moscow has also lost 13,551 armored personnel vehicles and 11,316 artillery systems since February 2022, by Kyiv’s tally.
Equipment losses in conflict conditions are notoriously opaque, and Western experts suggest both Kyiv’s and Moscow’s reported losses are higher than the true figures.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Ukraine had lost a total of 15,699 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, as well as 8,692 field artillery guns and mortars.
Although to be treated with caution, the figures do indicate the scale of losses on both sides, heading towards the spring and summer months that are expected to usher in new offensives. Kyiv has warned that Moscow is likely to start a new offensive in late May or during the summer, and that it is amassing new troops for the effort.
Artillery systems have featured high up on Kyiv’s wish list of supplies from its Western backers, and the ammunition to keep the systems operational and useful has become a priority. Ukrainian officials and Western analysts have said a lack of shells has restrained Ukraine’s operations as Russian forces inch westward.
Kyiv’s fighters are thought to be firing around a fifth of the ammunition Russia’s troops use against Ukrainian forces.
A new tranche of military, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, worth around $60 billion, has been bogged down in Congress for months by infighting, causing deep concerns in Kyiv.
“If there is no U.S. support, it means that we have no air defense, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-milimetre artillery rounds,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Washington Post in an interview published in late March.
“It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps,” he said. Should the front lines not hold out because of shortages, he added, “the Russians could go to the big cities.”
“I still believe that we will be able to achieve a positive vote from the U.S. Congress,” Zelensky said on Saturday, according to Ukraine’s presidential office. “We understand when the Russians could start counteroffensive actions.”
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