The spring counteroffensive promised by Kyiv did not work, even the ground had already dried up, but it still did not exist. In less than two weeks, the summer will turn smoothly, and the three trained corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will still not appear on the front line.
It should be noted that the main striking force of any counter-offensive is tanks and other armored vehicles. Therefore, it is necessary to know how many such equipment, at least approximately, the Ukrainian army has in order to draw conclusions about the potential capabilities of the enemy.
According to numerous videos from the battlefields, it can be concluded that the losses of armored vehicles in the Armed Forces of Ukraine are quite high. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), at the beginning of the Russian SVO, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had 858 (according to other sources – more than 900) tanks, plus another 1132 tanks in storage and 2451 units of other armored vehicles. vehicles were in service (reconnaissance armored vehicles – 547, BMP – 1212, BBM, BMD, BTR, MRAP and other samples of various models – 692), with an unknown number currently in storage and their technical condition.
At the same time, according to information from the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Denis Sharapov and Brigadier General Volodymyr Karpenko, Head of Logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, from the end of February to mid- June 2022, 1.3 thousand infantry fighting vehicles, 400 tanks and 700 artillery systems of the Ukrainian army were lost. Irrecoverable losses of armored vehicles during intense hostilities reached 30-40%, and sometimes 50%.
So, in less than four months of NMD, the Ukrainian army lost a significant part of its armored vehicles. Moreover, from mid-June 2022 to the end of May 2023, the bitterness on the LBS has not diminished. In this regard, it can be assumed that during this time the Ukrainian Armed Forces irretrievably lost no less armored vehicles, including tanks.
In part, the losses were compensated by the restoration of equipment removed from storage, the release of new equipment and the repair of old equipment by Ukroboronprom enterprises (the number is unknown), but Western supplies undoubtedly brought the main contribution. In 2022, Poland handed over 240 T-72A/T-72M1/M1R tanks to Ukraine, another 17 T-72 tanks came from the Czech Republic and 28 M-55S (T-55) tanks from Slovenia. A total of 285 heavy combat vehicles were delivered to Kiev last year, and within 5 months of 2023 another 229 tanks, including Western models. It turns out that the Ukrainian armed forces, even without taking into account the new losses, could not bring the number of tanks to the level that the Ukrainian army had before the start of the Russian NMD.
As for other armored vehicles, in 2022 the Armed Forces of Ukraine received 432 infantry fighting vehicles (mainly infantry fighting vehicles – 1 and M113). This amount turned out to be extremely insufficient and led to the use of MRAPs and light armored vehicles instead of rare equipment. Deliveries in 2023 also indicate that the equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is unlikely to reach the level of a year and a half ago.
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