Real World Event Discussions

Why is Russia losing so much military equipment?

POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, July 26, 2026 23:24
VIEWED: 5616
PAGE 1 of 9

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 10:16 PM

Contrary to what some might suggest, it is not a strategy.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-war-military-equipment-losses/3
1847839.html


Russia has reportedly lost more than 650 tanks and about 3,000 other armored vehicles and heavy equipment so far in its invasion of Ukraine. Experts put the losses down to the advanced anti-tank weapons given to Ukraine by Western countries, poor strategy, low morale, and important design flaws.

Ukraine says Russia has lost almost 1,200 tanks, a number that we cannot verify. However, the military and intelligence blog Oryx, which counts Russian military equipment losses in Ukraine based on photographs sent from the front lines, says Russia has lost 664 tanks (as of May 13, 2022) and about 3,000 other armored vehicles and heavy equipment so far.

Abandoned Equipment

Out of the 664 tanks that Russia has lost in Ukraine, 283 were abandoned or captured. According to military analysts, that says a lot about the operation: Poor intelligence led to Russian commanding officers not being able to plan their offensive operations properly, and the core of military personnel consists mostly of conscripts -- around 80 percent -- who are not professionally trained to use the equipment.

The invading forces were also expecting Ukrainians to receive them with open arms, which, as we know, did not happen, and the high number of casualties in the opening days and weeks of the invasion has affected the morale of Russian troops, who often fled their positions, leaving the equipment behind.

In fact, so much Russian military equipment was left abandoned that Ukrainian authorities even declared that anyone who took possession of such equipment did not need to declare it for tax purposes.

Amateur videos of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles being towed across fields and villages by Ukrainian tractors regularly go viral on social media. The military vehicles are usually abandoned, broken down, or out of fuel. They are often handed over to Ukrainian armed forces battling Russia's invasion.

Destroyed Equipment

As for the equipment that was lost in combat, the war in Ukraine has exposed fundamental design flaws and outdated or inferior-quality materials in Russian equipment:

Tank turrets that were blown off and now lie in ruins several meters from the rubble of the exploded tank point to a design issue known as the "Jack-in-the-box" flaw.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-war-military-equipment-losses/3
1847839.html

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THG
Thursday, May 19, 2022 5:05 AM




T


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Thursday, May 19, 2022 7:38 AM

Four Russia threads weren't enough. Let's make a fifth one.

Keep asking dumbass questions like this, Cap'n, and don't come crying to me when you can't figure out why Democrats aren't in power for the rest of your life.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Thursday, May 19, 2022 9:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Contrary to what some might suggest, it is not a strategy.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-war-military-equipment-losses/3
1847839.html


Russia has reportedly

That's as far as anyone needs to read.


-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Thursday, May 19, 2022 6:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SignyM:
Russia has reportedly That's as far as anyone needs to read.




Zignym has posted That's as far as anyone needs to read.


Zignym can’t be honest enough to admit that that is, has been, and always will be, what reporters do: Report. Good ones do it better than bad ones. No matter. Zignym can’t be bothered to read reporting that says bad things about New and Improved Russia no matter how true. Much like Russian tv, Signym simply can’t do honest. Truth never factors in for her. Perfect Putin/Trump disciple. Lie at all costs.

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Thursday, May 19, 2022 6:34 PM

Quote:

SignyM:
Russia has reportedly
That's as far as anyone needs to read.


CAPONCRUNCH: Zignym has posted
That's as far as anyone needs to read.


Zignym can’t be honest enough to admit that that is, has been, and always will be, what reporters do: Report.
Zignym can’t be bothered to read reporting that says bad things about New and Improved Russia. Signym simply can’t do honest.

I thought that reporters were supposed to do a minimum of fact checking before they blabbed all over the media.

Apparently not.

Thats why we get reporters "reporting" on non-reality like IRAQ!WMD! and RUSSIA!TRUMP!COLLUSION! quoting "reliable sources" like "anonymous officials" and
Kiev intelligence sources"

Since THEY can't separate fact from fiction, we're left to do investigating ourselves. And apparently CAPON doesn't believe in separating fact from fiction.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Thursday, May 19, 2022 9:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I thought that reporters were supposed to do a minimum of fact checking before they blabbed all over the media.

Apparently not.

Thats why we get reporters "reporting" on non-reality like IRAQ!WMD! and RUSSIA!TRUMP!COLLUSION! quoting "reliable sources" like "anonymous officials" and
Kiev intelligence sources"

Since THEY can't separate fact from fiction, we're left to do investigating ourselves. And apparently CAPON doesn't believe in separating fact from fiction.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - reportedly NOT William Blake, but Signym.

See Spark Notes for the actual words and meaning, rather than Signym's not-at-all-subtle rewrite of a long poem.
https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/section8/


Army vehicles were so decrepit that repair crews were stationed roughly every 15 miles. Some officers were so out of shape that the military budgeted $1.5 million to re-size standard uniforms.

That was the Russian military more than a decade ago when the country invaded Georgia, according to the defense minister at the time. The shortcomings, big and small, were glaring enough that the Kremlin announced a complete overhaul of the military to build a leaner, more flexible, professional force.

But now, almost three months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is clear the Kremlin fell woefully short of creating an effective fighting machine. Russian forces in Ukraine have underperformed to a degree that has surprised most Western analysts, raising the prospect that President Vladimir V. Putin’s military operation could end in failure.

By any measure, despite capturing territory in the south and east, the Russian military has suffered a major blow in Ukraine. It has been forced to abandon what it expected would be a blitzkrieg to seize the entire country in a few days. Its forces were driven from around Kyiv, the capital. The flagship of its Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, was sunk; it has never controlled the skies; and by some Western estimates, tens of thousands of Russians have died.

This war has exposed the fact that, to Russia’s detriment, much of the military culture and learned behavior of the Soviet era endures: inflexibility in command structure, corruption in military spending, and concealing casualty figures and repeating the mantra that everything is going according to plan.

Continue reading at https://web.archive.org/web/20220518195141/https://www.nytimes.com/202
2/05/16/world/europe/russia-military-ukraine.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, May 19, 2022 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I thought that reporters were supposed to do a minimum of fact checking before they blabbed all over the media.

Apparently not.



Yes, they're suppose to.

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Thats why we get reporters "reporting" on non-reality like IRAQ!WMD!



Dull and boring. You'll use one ancient f-up to slander decades of great, seriously important reporting, just so you can say "ALL news is fake news" and then make shit up. You working for Putin? Trump? Erdogan? Orban?

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
and RUSSIA!TRUMP!COLLUSION!



Finally, you understand! You actually see the difference between Biden in office and that Putin ck smoker, Trump.

Explaining to a child time:
Z -"reliable sources" = are very important, pretty obvious

Z - "anonymous officials" = many sources need to be promised anonymity to reveal important information for fear of retribution. Are you using your real name, Ziggy?

Z - "Kiev intelligence sources" = the actual truth, we already said they can't be trusted.

Z - "Since THEY can't separate fact from fiction, we're left to do investigating ourselves." I gave you a long list of facts and realities and you did not disprove (or even try) any of them. I guess you really suck at the investigating.

5 year old Z - "And apparently CAPON doesn't believe in separating fact from fiction." Why do you bother?

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Friday, May 20, 2022 1:16 AM

Quote:

SIGNYM:
I thought that reporters were supposed to do a minimum of fact checking before they blabbed all over the media.
Apparently not.

CAPN: Yes, they're suppose to.

SIGNYM:Thats why we get reporters "reporting" on non-reality like IRAQ!WMD!

CAPON: Dull and boring.

Only CAPON would (attempt to) dismiss an important truth as "dull and boring". THIS particular lie went on for a half year under various guises...

9-11! terrorism!
aluminum tubes!
yellowcake!
chemical warfare!
biolabs!
mushroom clouud!
East west north south somewhat of Baghdad!

"Reporters" had multiple moments to get off that impending trainwreck, which they NEVER did. Not once did they question a constantly-shifting narrative and forever-moving goalposts, or take a serious look at the actual on-the-ground investigation by Hans Blix. In the end this "dull boring" series of lies

cost us a trillion dollars
up to a million Iraqi lives (Yes I know: You're all for human rights unless they happen to be Iraqi, bc Iraqis aren't human)
set off the GWOT,
fostered the creation of torture sites, black sites, extraordinary rendition, Star Chamber execution
created a power vacuum and the formation of ISIS

Yanno, no big deal.


Quote:

CAPON: You'll use one
Oh, c'mon. Everyone here knows that I've given multiple examples many times. List not inclusive:
Vietnam,
Chile
Noreiga
Grenada
Serbia/Milosevic
Georgia (former SSR)
Ukraine (ongoing since 2013)
Syria/Assad
Libya/Qaddafi
TRUMP
Russia/Putin
N Korea/Kim Jong Un
Inflation
Racism/white supremacy
SARS-CoV-2
Southern border

Shit, son, you name it, it's been lied about.




Quote:

CAPON: Finally, you understand! You actually see the difference between Biden in office and that Putin ck smoker, Trump.


First off, Biden* is not in charge. It's whoever is in charge of the teleprompter that day.

Second, so now we have an admin engaging in a self- destructive multi-billion hot war/trillion dollar sanctions war either

a) On behalf of a corrupt undemocratic regime that most people STILL couldn't find on a map if their life depended on it, and couldn't give a shit about, OR

b) To embark on a feckless project of destroying Russia.

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Friday, May 20, 2022 2:19 AM

To get back to the original topic:

I don't believe a single word or jot that comes out of either Kiev's "intelligence" sources or ours, or a media that promulgates their propaganda.

And since you haven't demonstrated that there's any "there" there to the topic, this is a pointless thread.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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