The Russian Army is Losing Way Less Equipment Now. What’s the Reason?

In the summer of 2025, Russian army equipment losses dropped significantly, according to data from the OSINT project Oryx analyzed by IStories. This primarily concerns tanks and armored fighting vehicles (AFV), that is, armored personnel carriers (APC), infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), etc. From June to August, Russians lost 83 tanks and 189 other armored vehicles. In the summer months of the previous three years of the war, losses were as follows: in 2022 — 252 tanks and 411 AFVs, in 2023 — 274 tanks and 468 AFVs, in 2024 — 268 tanks and 619 AFVs.

Losses in vehicles have also dropped significantly: in the summers of 2022, 2023, and 2024, they were roughly twice as high. You can study the Russian equipment loss figures in detail on our charts.

There is an obvious explanation for the reduction in Russian armored vehicle losses: they are being used much less. This started a while ago. Back at the end of 2023, after losing hundreds of pieces of equipment near Avdiivka, the Russian army stopped using tanks and APCs en masse there and switched to infantry assault tactics.

Sometimes, in certain sectors of the front, Russians fight without any equipment support at all. According to Ukrainian military personnel, this was the case in the spring of last year on the southern front and in the summer of 2025 near Toretsk. “As soon as they make contact with our position, they pull back 200–300 meters. And then everything starts flying into the area where the contact happened — FPV drones, artillery fires, tanks shoot, and Grad cluster munitions are launched. They level the entire tree line with the ground, and then their group tries to advance further,” is how, in December, described an assault without armor, the commander of a UAV platoon of the AFU, who fought near Pokrovsk. Russians attack in groups of no more than six people from different directions; there was a case when they assaulted a position simultaneously from 21 different points, say the 3rd Assault Brigade of the AFU.

A common variant of a mechanized assault is when a single tank, APC, or IFV leads a column, followed by troops in buggies, civilian cars, or motorcycles. “It’s much harder for us to hit buggies, motorcycles, or electric scooters — and yes, that happens too — because of their high speed and small size,” says an AFU soldier.

Currently, equipment is not used for breakthroughs; its task is to deliver infantry closer to enemy positions and quickly withdraw, explains a Russian military expert who requested anonymity. “For the Russians, equipment is not the main thing. They don’t care if it gets burned. What matters to them is getting the infantry to the right spot,” confirms an AFU officer.

The Russian army is conserving equipment for two main reasons.

There is little equipment left

According to Oryx, since the start of the war, the Russian army has lost 4,113 tanks and 9,065 AFVs. A year ago, the Oryx administrator said: “The Russian command has realized it does not have an endless supply of equipment. The remaining equipment in storage is, in many cases, in absolutely terrible condition, and even if they can repair it, it will happen slowly.”

At that time, OSINT analysts wrote, that even those parts of old equipment depots where disassembled vehicles were stored had begun to empty. They were being stripped for spare parts, most often IFVs were cannibalized.

In June 2025, OSINT analyst @Jonpy99 analyzed satellite images of equipment storage bases and concluded, that compared to the start of the war, these bases have 46% of their tanks, 42% of their IFVs, and 49% of their APCs left — and not all of this equipment is operational. “The bases are really depleted. There’s something left, but it’s apparently junk that can’t be restored,” says an anonymous expert.

The tank reserves of the Russian army in July were studied by Novaya Gazeta Europe. According to one expert, Uralvagonzavod produces about 20 new T-90 tanks per month and also refurbishes about 130 T-72s. Other repair plants also restore old tanks. It’s premature to claim that Russia has run out of tanks, but for large-scale offensive operations, there may not be enough, believes former SBU officer Ivan Stupak.

Equipment is destroyed quickly

Now, one of the main factors in Russia’s war with Ukraine is drones, both strike and reconnaissance. Ukrainian troops call the territory within 10 km of the line of contact a “kill zone.” Enemy fighters — and especially equipment — become easy targets there. According to estimates by Ukrainian military, in 2024, drones accounted for 75% of strikes on Russian equipment and 69% on personnel. In April 2024, a NATO official said that two-thirds of Russian tanks are destroyed by drones.

“Attacks using large masses of armored vehicles — the basis of offensive tactics for all armies before the Special Military Operation — had to be abandoned, because advancing units were being destroyed even during the approach <...> and sometimes no one made it to enemy positions at all,” wrote in November last year, Z-blogger Vladislav Shurygin.

When tanks and other heavy equipment are used en masse, Ukrainian troops can detect them long before they begin their combat mission, confirms an anonymous military expert. Before an offensive, it is necessary to deploy refueling points and evacuation points for damaged equipment. This preparation is easy to spot: reconnaissance drones now “see” 30 km from the front line, and in the steppe terrain of Zaporizhzhia, even farther.

Tanks are relatively resistant to hits from small FPV drones. To destroy a vehicle, it often takes a dozen such drones, the expert continues. However, a tank can be disabled by a single FPV drone if, for example, it damages the track. After that, the immobilized vehicle can be finished off by the same drones or targeted by artillery. Sometimes, Ukrainians equip heavy drones with anti-tank mines — in that case, a tank can be destroyed with a single strike.

The main problem with the use of equipment in the Russian army is not that it is being destroyed, but that it is used ineffectively, says military analyst Kirill Mikhailov. “Losing several dozen tanks and IFVs across the entire front in a month (and that’s how many are produced) won’t get you any results,” he says. At the same time, it can’t be said that armored vehicles are now completely useless: “A tank with good additional protection and electronic warfare requires far more drones to destroy than an infantryman or an unarmored vehicle.” Photos and videos of equipment outfitted with additional protection appear regularly.

Is Russia stockpiling equipment for a major breakthrough?

It is possible that the Russian command is conserving equipment for a major offensive in the fall. In August, Vladimir Zelensky warned about possible Russian offensive operations, and now European allies of Ukraine are talking about it, while OSINT analysts believe that Russians are stockpiling equipment for the right moment, and predict assaults using mechanized columns. On September 6, the 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces of Ukraine, fighting near Pokrovsk, announced that Russians had transferred experienced marine units to this sector. Their plan, according to the 7th Corps, is a “decisive breakthrough” using large amounts of equipment.

Military analysts have already begun to record the use of columns of equipment in the Pokrovsk area. According to the founder of Conflict Intelligence Team, Ruslan Leviev, the armored vehicles are being used by Russian marines transferred here, while AFU drone operators “every other day” post footage of columns destroyed by drones. Military expert Yan Matveev writes about two columns burned in just a few days.

The Russian army may indeed be accumulating equipment, but to use it effectively, two conditions are needed, says an anonymous expert. First, a breakthrough in Ukrainian defenses is required; second, there must be open terrain behind AFU positions.

It can be assumed that the Russian command hopes that by massing equipment, it can “overload” Ukrainian drone units and break through the front in one or several sectors, most likely in the Pokrovsk direction, says Kirill Mikhailov: “If several hundred units are gathered in one place, maybe something will come of it.”