Russians, you're finished?

The ISW assessment followed reports that satellite images showed the extent of Russian military vehicle losses in storage during the war in Ukraine.

The public intelligence account Yompi on the social network X, which monitors Russian military stockpiles, reported on May 6 that Russia's stockpile of armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) had fallen by nearly a third (32 percent) compared to pre-war levels, a loss of 4,763 armored vehicles. 
 

The same account states that satellite imagery also revealed that Russia has withdrawn most of its MT-LB type multi-purpose armored vehicles from storage, leaving only 922, compared to the pre-war 2,527 in Ukraine.

The same figures also suggest that the Russians have only 244 airborne tracked infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) left, compared to 637 before the invasion.

The figures also revealed dwindling reserves of other vehicles, such as the newer model BTR-60, 70 and 80.

Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said on February 12 that Russia could probably sustain its annual vehicle loss rate of over 3,000 AFVs for at least two or three years if it reactivated vehicles from storage.

The IISS said Moscow forces lost over 3,000 AFVs and about 8,000 vehicles during the war last year, forcing Russian forces to reactivate at least 1,180 main battle tanks and about 2,470 IFVs and APCs from storage.

Meanwhile, the intelligence account on social network X, Marsed, reported on Wednesday that satellite images indicated that Russia had withdrawn roughly 60 percent of its artillery systems from an artillery storage base during the war.

However, half of the remaining artillery systems in the base are probably unusable, that is, they are too old to be compatible with modern ammunition, the statement added.

This is why the Institute for the Study of War considers the losses of Soviet-era Russian vehicles in the war in Ukraine to be irreparable. According to the estimates of that institute, Russia will not be able to compensate those losses with its defense industrial base "for many years". It is also emphasized that Russia will "probably try to adequately supply its units with material resources in the long term without shifting the Russian economy to a war footing", which Putin has tried to avoid until now, Newsweek reported.