Analysts believe Russia could have lost so much military equipment in Ukraine that replenishing its inventory might take «years.»
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the U.S. wanted to see Russia so «weakened» that it won’t be able to support another war like the one it initiated in Ukraine. Now, analysts suggest Moscow might have already reached that point. In an article published on Wednesday, analysts told The Times they believe Russia already burned through so much of its military strength in the past two months of war that it could be «years» before the Kremlin is able to order another such invasion of a neighboring country. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at Washington think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the British newspaper that, according to estimates, Russia might have already lost the equivalent of two years of tank production, one year’s supply of aircraft and likely several year’s worth of missile production since the beginning of the invasion on February 24. According to the investigative website Bellingcat, Russia is estimated to have lost 70 percent of the precision missiles in its inventory — costly, highly valuable military equipment. Ukrainian authorities claim even bigger losses among the Russian army, saying that the Russian military has lost a total of 939 tanks,185 planes,155 helicopters,421 artillery units and eight ships since the beginning of the war, according to the latest estimates.
