The shortage of armored vehicles forces Russian troops to attack with civilian cars

The open-source intelligence group Oryx has compiled statistics that show that since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has lost almost 11,000 armored vehicles, including more than 3,500 tanks5,000 armored personnel carriers, 1,000 self-propelled ones artilleryand almost 300 howitzers.

In a 2023 speech, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said: “We will produce 1,500 tanks this year alone.”

According to reports by the Royal Unified Services Institute (RUSI), about 85% of Russian tanks and armored vehicles deployed on the front, as it claims, are not newly manufactured, but “expired” equipment brought from long-term storage – and this is running out.

Recent satellite images show that depots such as the one in Vaghzhanovo, Buryatia, have been stripped of almost half of the resources seen before the invasion. Most of this equipment is decades old and much of it was sent directly to the battlefield without modernization or renovation.

Even a limited number of “new designs”, including T-80 and T-90 main battle tanks, were fielded without key components such as explosive reactive armor and laser targeting systems.

Growing shortages of operational armored equipment have forced Russian troops to use motorcycles, ATVs, buggies, modified civilian trucks, and even standard civilian cars to attack Ukrainian defense positions.

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The AFU repels a large Russian attack near Kursk, destroying 50 vehicles and killing 45

Ukrainian forces dealt a serious blow to Russian troops near Kursk, stopping a multi-wave attack and inflicting multi-million losses in personnel and equipment.

According to the Atesh guerrilla group, Russian forces also use civilian cars, trailers and minibuses to transport artillery ammunition dressed in civilian clothes.

A video released in late October by the Ukrainian 54th Mechanized Brigade of “Hetman Ivan Mazepa” showed Russian troops attacking Ukrainian positions in a WAZ Zhiguli car, which was modified with the removal of the roof and doors and an anti-drone “grill” with camouflage mesh welded to the top of the vehicle .

The car followed the tracks of armored vehicles, trying to avoid land mines, unaware that it had been spotted by a reconnaissance drone. Then a Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) kamikaze got involved. drones. He and his crew were destroyed.

Another video published at the end of November by the press service of the 60th Separate Mechanized Brigade “Ingulets” shows an assault by Russian infantry in three similarly modified Niva SUVs. They and their crews were attacked and destroyed by FPV drones dropping munitions on them.