Kiev, Ukraine – Moscow soldiers and war praise bloggers say some of the Russian troops, which have begun to use at the forefront of eastern Ukraine, are the latest mode of transport.
The use of braying quadruped animals to supply ammunition and supplies is “normal,” reported retired Russian vice general General Victor Sobolev.
“It’s better to have the donkey killed instead of the two men who deliver cargo in their car,” he told Gazeta.ru’s website on February 6th.
Last year, Russia launched a frontal attack from the Ukrainian position using motorcycles, dirt bikes, electric scooters and civilian vehicles.
Observers say the downgrade reflects a growing trend that has embraced Russia’s already slow progress in the Southern Donbas region, the main theatre of the war.
Tanking of armored vehicles
Military analysts told Al Jazeera that Ukrainian forces have already destroyed most of Russian tanks and armored vehicles.
The shortage is becoming increasingly difficult to fill up, despite Moscow delving into stocks from the Mammoth Soviet era and renovating dysfunctional vehicles that were discontinued.
“Armorned vehicles are being used at a terrifying speed,” Nikolei Mitrokin, a researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany, told Al Jazeera.
“Production of new things and recovery of damaged or eliminated things is far behind in losses,” said the park of Russian armored vehicles for the attack “sufficient months.”
Meanwhile, there is a “huge” problem with ubiquitous Ukrainian drones delivering supplies to the frontline as they destroy armored cargo vehicles and civilian vehicles, he said.
To prevent drones containing small explosives from sneaking into tank hatches and hitting armor, Russian soldiers covered them with metal bars, nets and rubber covers, which Ukrainians call it “royal barbecue.” Create something.
Russia cannot fire more than 60 tanks a year, according to Pavel Luzin, a defense analyst at the Centre for the European Policy Analysis, a think tank in Washington, DC.
“We’re not hundreds of stories,” he told Al Jazeera.
The biggest problem is the manufacture of turrets and guns, but complex electronic components such as infrared thermal imaging and targeting systems, once made with European components, have been replaced by unreliable Chinese components. I said that.
However, retired Ukrainian generals believe Moscow will have “up to two years” before armored vehicles are completely gone.
The Russian defense factories work on shifts, and bring together the tanks that will be renovated and renovated old and abolished tanks to function, said Lt. Gen. Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the Ukrainian military.
“It’s up to two years, considering the current losses they’re suffering,” he told Al Jazeera. “Unsurprisingly, the share of modern armored vehicles, tanks and other armored weapons will fall.”
As a result, Russia has fewer than 7,000 tanks and armored vehicles. According to Insider, an independent media outlet focusing on Russia, this is a 20-fold decrease compared to 140,000 in the Soviet Union in 1990.
The shortage may have already resulted in a noticeable slowdown in Russia’s occupation of Donbas.
By early February, the number of Russian attacks along the frontline had declined by a third, with the amount of occupied territory reaching just 21 square kilometers (8 square miles), according to Ukrainian analytical telegram Oko Gora. It has decreased. channel.
And for the first time in a few months, the Ukrainian forces managed to fight back, regaining a small area around the strategic southeastern city of Pokrovsk.
However, despite a shortage of artillery, Russia tripled its shell production to about 3 million a year, but North Korea reportedly supplies millions more. It’s there.
Pyongyang and Tehran are understood to provide hundreds of missiles, adding hundreds of Russian-made missiles to rain in Ukrainian cities.
But their effectiveness is at issue, some observers have pointed out.
Six Iskander missiles, which cost around $18 million, were launched in Kiev on Tuesday, killing one person and injured four.
air defense
The border between Russia and Ukraine extends over approximately 2,300 km (1,430 miles).
Recently, Ukrainian drones and missiles have reached deep in Russia, making military plants, bases, runways and oil refineries from the Arctic to the Black Sea coast.
Moscow “we were unable to build air defense lines parallel to the frontline and were unable to cover many important sites,” analyst Mitrokhin said.
Russia has fighter jets and advanced anti-missile and air defense systems, but “they can’t increase [their capabilities] Lieutenant Colonel Romanenko said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s “capacity and potential” is increasing, he said Kiev will increase the development and production of drones and missiles.
Kamikaze “Camel”
Russia is accused of employing so-called human “camels” along with donkeys. This was ordered to run towards Ukrainian status with a large amount of ammunition for future assault teams.
These soldiers and stormtroopers have a low chance of survival.
Prokremlin War reporters condemned the death or demobilization of experienced soldiers as new recruits reached the frontline after a short training session.
“The exemplary performance of service members’ duties transmitted by mass media is mostly related to the death of servicemen in combat,” Prokremlin analyst Viktor Murakhovsky told Telegram on January 16th. I wrote it. , must die heroically. ”
The Kremlin argues that recruiting men is not a challenge. Approximately 600,000 soldiers are fighting in Ukraine.
However, the “price” for each recruit has increased by more than 10 times since 2022.
Recently, enlistment payments have approached $30,000 and monthly salary starts at $2,000, but compensation for lost limbs or serious injuries is around $40,000.
Without declaring a new round of mobilization, the Kremlin has been accused of forcing labor migrants into “volunteers.” Verstka Magazine, an independent online news publication founded by Russian journalists, citing dozens of soldiers, was created on Tuesday to expand services by forces seeking to lift mobilization. I reported that.
“They said, ‘If you don’t sign the contract today, we’ll send you into the storm.'” Ukrainian position was quoted as saying by one of them.
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