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Ukraine has received almost $2 billion worth of military equipment – and this is not about Western help at all. The media claim that this is “Lend-Lease” from Russia.
Equipment, often completely new, was abandoned during the retreat of the Russian army from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and other directions or captured on the battlefield by the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a trophy.
Why is Moscow losing heavy weapons? How much does the war cost the Russians? How long, with such a rate of financial losses, will the Russian Federation be able to drag it out? About this – in the author’s program of the editor-in-chief of the FREEDOM TV channel Oleksiy Matsuka.
Russian lend-lease
Armored vehicles, small arms and even tanks with aircraft are what the Russians leave behind during the retreat, and the Ukrainians capture and return to the front again, but on their side. The volume of all this is huge.
According to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Moscow left more weapons in Ukraine than any of the Western countries transferred to Kyiv. It sounds incredible, but this fact is actually confirmed by independent sources. Military experts also talk about it.
“Having received 460 tanks from Russia, according to the most conservative estimates, it can be stated that this country is the largest supplier of heavy armored vehicles to Ukraine. These are quite significant volumes. There is evidence that many units are already equipped with almost 100% captured equipment, ”said Valery Ryabykh, military expert, development director of the Defense Express information and consulting company.
The Russians began to lose equipment in the spring, retreating from the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions. They abandoned it at the slightest breakdown, because there were no opportunities for repairs, or simply because the fuel ran out. They left the “iron”, and leaving Kherson. But most of all, when they left the Kharkov region. The counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine developed very rapidly, the Russians were not ready to somehow counteract. There was no time even for an organized retreat – not to mention the removal of equipment or deliberately damaging it.
Yes, there is also wrecked equipment, which is then dismantled for spare parts. But most of Ukraine repairs and puts into operation.
“We repair almost all equipment that was once made according to the standards of the Soviet Union. If the damage is not very large, we can put it into operation. Therefore, we can add at least another 25% of additional resources to the declared amount,” said military expert Serhiy Grabsky.
The calculation is clearly carried out in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, but there are also open statistics – the figures of research projects, according to which during the 9 months of the war we are talking about 2 thousand units of all kinds of equipment received by Ukraine only as “Russian lend-lease”. These are the calculations of the authoritative Dutch project Oryx. Its analysts closely monitor photo and video losses. And, therefore, not everyone sees, but even in this case, their numbers are amazing.
The most expensive trophies are tanks. Ukraine captured more than half a thousand of them for a total amount of over 800 million dollars. Next come armored personnel carriers – they are the largest in number – 1163 units. And this is another plus of almost 700 million dollars. Almost 200 units. artillery worth 154 million dollars, 209 units. Air defense – $ 175 million, 51 units. MLRS – $46 million, 503 military vehicles – $50 million and a helicopter – $10 million.
Among the trophies there are many new samples of Russian weapons. These are T-72B3 tanks, new mines that few have seen before, as well as Orlan-10 drones and their controls.
“In the Kharkiv region, Russia has lost a lot of equipment. We are talking about 300 units of various weapons. This is enough for about three battalion tactical groups,” added military expert Anton Mikhnenko.
And this is really a very serious damage – not only in terms of equipment losses, but also a big blow to the treasury.
The cost of war
During these months of the war, Russia spent a quarter of its annual budget on hostilities, Forbes calculated.
We are talking about 82 billion dollars, and this figure is increasing daily. And if we take into account the costs of mobilization, the purchase of Iranian drones and missiles, and the possible supply of shells from North Korea, then the war for the Kremlin is becoming more and more expensive. Already now it costs Moscow about $10 billion a month.
And this is not even considered by journalists. Official data from the Russian Ministry of Finance shows that one day of war with Ukraine costs taxpayers 21 billion rubles, or almost $400 million daily! To round it up – 1 billion rubles per hour.
Ask where such crazy expenses come from? First of all, defense spending has more than doubled compared to the pre-war period.
At the same time, the deficit of the state budget of Russia is growing at a frantic pace. Back in April of this year, it amounted to 1.6 trillion rubles. But revenues continue to decline – due to Western sanctions, restrictions on gas and oil trade, the shutdown of Nord Stream …
And now we are talking about a forced price limit for Russian oil: anything bought above this “ceiling” will be banned from being transported by sea.
