Russia trying to hide large-scale losses of equipment in Ukraine war - ISW

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said this in its latest Russian offensive campaign assessment, according to Ukrinform.

"The Kremlin continues to pursue measures to gradually prepare Russia's defense-industrial base for a protracted war in Ukraine while avoiding wider economic mobilization," ISW said.

At the same time, analysts say this approach "continue[s] to be incompatible with the scale of the war that the Russian military is fighting in Ukraine and the scale of Russian military equipment losses."

According to Dutch open-source group Oryx, Russian forces have lost 1,012 destroyed tanks in Ukraine with an additional 546 tanks captured by Ukrainian forces. Oryx reported that these combined losses represent roughly half the tanks that Russian forces committed to Ukraine at the start of the invasion.

"The Russian military needs to quickly replenish these tank losses to maintain the ability to conduct large-scale mechanized maneuver warfare ahead of a likely increased pace of offensive operations in eastern Ukraine," ISW said.

The researchers added that the Russian authorities likely framed their calls for increased production as a response to Western military assistance to Ukraine to obscure the fact that substantial military equipment losses are driving the need for increased production.