Ukraine overtakes russia in tanks and artillery, Bloomberg reports

The balance of heavy weapons on the battlefields has begun to gradually shift in Ukraine's favour. Given the latest deliveries of Western weapons, the Ukrainian army has caught up with russia in terms of the number of tanks.

This was reported by Bloomberg.

The updated Ukraine Support Tracker database, maintained by the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy, says that Kyiv's allies have delivered 471 new tanks since the beginning of the war and 286 more have yet to arrive, even though the number of new pledges has slowed.

Thus, Ukraine's tank fleet has grown since the start of the invasion last year, while Rrussia's has been cut in half.

By 24 February 2022, russia had 3,400 tanks, now it has 1,400. Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine had 987 tanks, now it has 1500.

According to Oryx, which only records losses it can confirm, 2,082 russian tanks have been destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured since the start of the war in 2022.

The gap in artillery and multiple launch rocket systems has also narrowed, albeit less dramatically.

As British Chief of Defence Staff Tony Radakin stated, russia has lost almost half of its army's combat capability. Last year it fired 10 million artillery shells, but at best it can produce 1 million shells a year. It has lost 2,500 tanks and can manufacture 200 tanks a year at best.

As noted, Ukraine now needs to regain territory, so it is on the offensive against a well-prepared defence, and this requires a strong advantage.

This explains the focus of Ukrainian forces on destroying russian artillery and supply routes before sending in the bulk of the brigades prepared for the counter-offensive Ukraine's General Staff has recently claimed the destruction of more than 30 russian artillery pieces almost daily. Artillery losses are particularly difficult to verify, as the guns are usually located far behind the front line.

The Kiel Institute's update of its data for the period from 25 February to 31 May showed that aid pledges were significantly lower than in the winter, despite some large packages from Germany and the US, with military commitments totalling 9 billion over the period.

At the same time, the share of military aid relative to financial and humanitarian pledges increased, the institute said. The report says that the United States and European Union member states are the slowest to fulfil their arms commitments: 286 out of 757 tanks and 177 out of 556 155mm and 152mm howitzers have not yet arrived.

These delays may make even some of the tanks delivered less effective than they should be, as Ukrainian forces have had to rush through training, often by different North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners with different practices.

"Until the Ukrainians have a clear advantage," Michel said, "the cost of trying to get ahead is going to be very high.

Background. As a reminder: The administration of US President Joe Biden may announce the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine as early as this week. CBS, citing an unnamed US official, notes that a single cluster munition can hit five times the area of conventional shells.