Russia has likely lost almost half of its best tanks during its invasion of Ukraine with Vladimir Putin’s troops stepping up attacks in the country’s eastern regions including Donetsk and Luhansk in a major offensive.
Moscow’s pre-invasion fleet of modern T-72B3 and T-72B3M main battle tanks has been hit particularly hard, with a loss rate of up to 50 per cent, an assessment from military think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) suggests.
The director general of the IISS, John Chipman, said that Moscow has been forced “to rely on its older stored weapons” thanks to production of the newer models being “slow” which means Russia is falling back on its Soviet-era tanks.
This comes as the Russian defence ministry has claimed that its soldiers have broken through two fortified defensive lines in Ukraine’s east, suggesting the invading forces are marching ahead.
“During the offensive... the Ukrainian troops randomly retreated to a distance of up to 3 km (2 miles) from the previously occupied lines,” the ministry said on Telegram
