Attrition

As a follow-up to last week's post that addressed the difficulty Russia is having replacing lost artillery, this post, gleaned from an article at Strategy Page, expands on additional Russian losses.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the Russians have suffered the loss of,

• 430,000 soldiers killed, captured, or missing.
• 6,790 tanks and 13,000 other armored vehicles. (The armored vehicle losses have been catastrophic. The Russian tanks and other armored vehicles being used now are mostly older models, including tanks produced in the 1950s and 1960s which were put into reserve in the 1970s.)
• 10,000 artillery systems.
• about a thousand MLRS (Multiple Launcher Rocket Systems), which are usually mounted on heavy trucks.
• 720 air defense systems which include systems that use missiles as well as mobile systems that use smaller missiles and 30mm autocannon.
• 347 jet fighters and ground attack aircraft lost along with 325 helicopters. (The jets are difficult to replace because they include a lot of imported electronics and other components from European companies which are no longer available due to sanctions for Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.)
• 14,000 trucks for moving supplies and, in tanker trucks, fuel.
• 24 warships sunk or disabled, including one submarine.

Additional details can be found at the Strategy Page article. This level of attrition has made Putin's gambit in Ukraine exceedingly costly, and experts are skeptical that Russia can keep it up indefinitely, especially if legislation allocating aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan that's currently bottled up in the U.S. Congress is approved after the current two-week recess.