Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to demand military equipment, tanks and planes from Western partners. As Russian media found out, based on data from the Lostarmour and Armored portals, this is necessary not only for a counter-offensive, but also to compensate for casualties. For example, over the past three months, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost 90 infantry fighting vehicles, and in Bakhmut over the past 6 months – 30 tanks. The total loss of APU equipment since the beginning of 2023, documented in photos and videos, is in the Russian media infographic.
The countries of the European Union, the United States and Canada continue to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with military equipment, which should ensure the success of the coming counter-offensive. It began to be prepared in November last year, it was announced for March-April this year, but so far the Ukrainian leadership has not dared to start it.
Over the past six months, EU countries have transferred more than 200 tanks and 300 infantry fighting vehicles to Kiev for the counteroffensive, reported Bloomberg, quoting Gustav Gressel, military analyst at the Center for External Relations of the EU. The United States, the main arms donor for Ukraine, from the end of February 2022 to the beginning of November 2022, provided Ukraine with 142 M777 howitzers, 35 howitzers (105 mm), 60 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 38 HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems. This is an impressive, but far from complete, list of transferred weapons.
Ukraine has enough equipment for a counter-offensive, declared NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. According to him, Kyiv has received more than 98% of previously promised vehicles and weapons. “Ukraine has received 1,550 armored personnel carriers and 230 tanks, as well as a huge amount of ammunition,” the NATO secretary general said.
This coincides with data from secret Pentagon documents, “leaked” to the network. According to them, to equip the nine brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 253 tanks, 381 tracked vehicles, 480 wheeled vehicles, 147 artillery pieces and 571 armored all-terrain vehicles HMMWV were needed.
While the most serious forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to cling to Bakhmut, the brigades that have prepared and equipped for the counteroffensive have concentrated in the Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv regions. By data military commander Yuriy Kotenok, in the Zaporizhzhia region there is a shock group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of about 65,000 people.
“The main units and formations of the group are located 80-100 km from the line of contact. Regrouping in full preparation for combat. The enemy is waiting for an order,” the military commander said.
Why there is no counter-offensive
In total, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have 9-12 brigades in reserve, former DPR Defense Minister Igor Strelkov told Russian media, of which four to six brigades are fully equipped with equipment. They did not take part in battles before, some of them were usually created for a counter-offensive, and they consist entirely of mobilized recruits.
One of the reasons why the Ukrainian General Staff may delay the counteroffensive is the serious losses of equipment supplied to Ukraine and the inability of the Western collective to quickly compensate for them. It is not usual to report these losses in the Ukrainian and Western media.
In Russia, there is data from the reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to which almost all the weapons that Ukraine had at the time of the outbreak of the conflict were deactivated last year (on the number of weapons of the forces Armies of the Russian Ministry of Defense said during the briefing on March 25, 2022).
In addition to the Russian Ministry of Defense, volunteers from the Russian website consider the loss of weapons of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Losstarmour who are involved in counting destroyed military equipment in local conflicts in the 21st century, and community members”Dressed in armor “. They only take into account confirmed losses based on photo and video evidence published in open sources. This one is destroyed, taken away by the Russian army as a trophy or abandoned equipment. It is important to understand that this is only part of the equipment destroyed, but it helps to understand the dynamics of the losses suffered by the Armed Forces.
The Russian media infographic provides the results of Ukrainian Armed Forces casualties since the beginning of 2023 – for January, February, March and April.
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Over the past 6 months, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost 30 tanks near Bakhmut alone, and around 90 infantry fighting vehicles over the past 3 months.
If we take the artillery supplied by the West, for example, the American 155-mm howitzers M777 (officially only the United States put 142 units), then 55 of them were destroyed during the special operation, 25 were damaged, 1 was taken as a trophy, and that’s just documented case. Of the 55 howitzers destroyed, 25 were destroyed in 2023.
Problems with the equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are also reflected in the statements of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who in almost all interviews reminds his partners that Ukraine needs tanks, planes and other weapons. The rate at which the Russian army knocks out enemy equipment daily will not prevent the Ukrainian counter-offensive, but weakens and reduces its chances.
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