Russia turns to old tanks as it burns through weapons in Ukraine, European officials say
- Russian reservists are training on Soviet era artillery and tanks, analysts say
- Russia has lost a large amount of tanks and armoured personnel carriers in war
Russia is scraping across the country to find manpower and weapons, including old tanks based in the Far East, having used up much of its military capacity in the first 100 days of its invasion of Ukraine, according to senior European officials with knowledge of the situation on the ground.
As a result, Russia may be only a few months from needing to slow operations for a major regroup, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that aren’t public.
The Kremlin might also be forced to announce a mass mobilisation in order to call up soldiers to continue the fight, the people said, though that’s something President Vladimir Putin so far has been reluctant to do as it would amount to a public admission the war isn’t going as planned.
If Russia takes those two – particularly the more strategic city of Lysychansk still under greater Ukrainian control – it would effectively seize the entire Luhansk region, achieving one of the goals Putin set out at the start of the war.
But Russia’s progress remains slow and mostly limited to Luhansk even after it focused efforts on the larger Donbas following the failure of its attempts to take Kyiv and other major cities early in the war.