Russia has lost an unbelievable number of tanks since Putin invaded Ukraine

Russia has likely lost at least half of its operational tank fleet since Vladimir Putin started his invasion of Ukraine according to information gathered by the open-source intelligence group Oryx. 

Oryx has been tracking Russian armored losses since the beginning of Putin’s disastrous invasion and only reports variable losses that can be proven with picture or video evidence. 

According to a recent Oryx report at the time of writing this article, Russia has lost 1733 tanks in Ukraine—1020 of which have been confirmed to be destroyed.

The open-source intelligence group also noted that Ukranian forces had damaged 80 tanks and found at least 86 more that had been abandoned by Russian soldiers. "Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed," Oryx noted. 

The Armed Forces of Ukraine had also been credited by Oryx with the capture of 547 Russian tanks since the start of the invasion, more than has been provided by Ukraine’s western allies. 

“Russia started the war with around 3,000 operational tanks,” Oryx military analyst Jakub Jankovsy told CNN reporter Bred Lendon, “so there is a good chance that Russia has lost one-half of [its] usable tanks.”

Oryx doesn’t count Russian armored losses unless they can be properly verified with supporting evidence according to Lendon, so it is likely the number of Russian tank losses far exceeds the number provided by the intelligence group. 

Jankovsky told Lendon that his estimate certainly far exceeded what Oryx could prove, and he calculated Russian tank losses in Ukraine to be upwards of 2000. 

Even if Jankovsky’s estimates are high, the number of proven Russian tank losses would mean that Putin has lost roughly 50% of his operational tank forces in Ukraine. 

Oryx’s estimates of Russia’s tank losses might not be that far off from reality. The intelligence group’s predictions fall in line with comments made by Celeste Wallander, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the United States. 

While speaking during a Center for a New American Security virtual event in February, Wallander stated Russia "has probably lost half of its main battle tank stock in combat and through Ukrainian capture," as quoted by The Moscow Times.

On February 4th, The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily briefing that they believed Russia had lost 3255 tanks since the war began in February 2022, though that number is probably too high even if Putin replenished his invasion army's tank stocks.  

“On paper, Russia still has a lot of tanks,” Jankosky told CNN, “but many were not properly stored and might be hard to reactivate quickly.”

Jankovsky also told CNN that Russia probably had roughly 4000 tanks in its reserve stocks before Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, which would mean Russia’s armed forces have lost about 30% of their total tank fleet.

Oryx also noted that since the invasion began, Russia has lost at least 9255 pieces of armor, 5829 of which were destroyed and 2773 of which were captured. While this is great news for Ukraine’s defense, it shouldn’t be taken as a sign that overall victory is close. 

“I think we need to be mindful that as Russia continues to suffer losses in Ukraine,” Celeste Wallander said during her speech at the New American Security’s virtual event, “it is learning how to adapt, it is learning tactically, operationally, and somewhat strategically.”