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Now a lot is said about missiles in Russia, their shortage and the ability

of the military-industrial complex of the occupant to fill their number,

but there is no mention of another very important tool of the Russian army - tanks.

And it is at the expense of tank fists that Russia is able to carry out both offensives and defenses.

At the time of the invasion of Ukraine, according to various sources, the Russian army had up to

3,300 combat-ready tanks. As of today, according to the AFU General Staff, 2,899 Russian army

tanks have been destroyed. According to Oryx analysts 1,505 have been destroyed.

Separately, I note that Oryx records only the equipment, destruction,

damage or seizure of which is documented (photos or video).

On the other hand, the equipment left to rust in the temporarily occupied

territories or taken to the cemetery in the Russian Federation is not recorded.

That is to say, the tank crisis in the Russian forces, as they say, is obvious.

How to solve it? To remove the tanks from storage and preservation. No matter what,

and according to open data Russia has about 15,000 T-72, T-80, T-90, T-64 and T-62 tanks in storage.

The tanks on papers are in the right amount, but there is a nuance.

The fact is that the vast majority of these tanks were in storage in unsatisfactory

conditions and cannot be restored. Another part needs to be repaired.

In fact, about 20% of all the available tanks are

fit for restoration of combat effectiveness. Roughly speaking this is up to 3,000 tanks.

Again, a serious amount to restore the army’s combat capability, but still...

Repair of these tanks and return them to combat-ready condition takes time.

For example, the T-72 can take anywhere from two weeks to a month to recover from mothballing.

The T-80 has a more complicated process and is on average a month.

In addition, in most cases the restoration takes place in the

format of technical cannibalism, that is, parts from other tanks are used.

Such a format is particularly common when restoring the T-64, as well as the T-62.

It is worth noting that the T-62s are the easiest and fastest to restore, but they are completely

out of step with modern warfare. The last such tank was taken off the assembly line 47 years ago.

But the Russians have no other option, it is the T-62s that can be sent to the front the fastest.

As a result, Russia is facing a serious problem - an unprecedented shortage of tanks.

It is trying to solve this problem at the expense of "friendly" countries,

such as Belarus, by exporting tank reserves.

But the resource of Belarus alone is not enough for Russia, so it will look for other sources. For

example, in the post-Soviet space, Turkmenistan had the largest stock of tanks after Ukraine.

It is possible that in the near future Moscow will apply for the opportunity to

buy some tanks from other mass operators of the Soviet nomenclature of tanks.

Given the proximity of the relationship,

Russia’s tank crisis could force Russia to start negotiations with India, Iran, and Algeria.

After all, the situation with tanks at Russia is really getting more and more critical shades.

In the meantime, we can observe the collapse of the largest tank army in the world.