The Russian war against Ukraine shows that outdated equipment is better than nothing – military expert

The war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is a war of numbers: the number of manpower, the number of weapons, the number of shells, defensive systems, and so on. Quality in this confrontation does not even fade into the background. Israeli military expert David Gendelman spoke about this in the project “On the Edge” of the FREEDOM TV channel.

“The Russian-Ukrainian war almost from the very beginning turned into a war of numbers. Quality comes in second place, if not third – outdated equipment and so on,” he said.

Gendelman noted that both sides use outdated military equipment.

“Whoever can do what he can fights. Russians actually have a very large percentage of outdated equipment. But the Ukrainian side is also fighting a large number of outdated equipment: the same German Leopard-1 tanks, the same Slovenian modernized, but, nevertheless, T-55 tanks. But the war once again shows that outdated technology is better than nothing. This is a war of numbers,” he emphasized.

The number of troop personnel also plays an important role on the battlefield. The expert recalled that it was precisely because of the lack of personnel in the Russian army at the front that the Ukrainian breakthrough occurred in the Kharkiv region in September 2022. The response to this was mobilization, which was announced in the Russian Federation on September 21, 2022.

“The first mobilization, of course, was not prepared. In essence, it was an improvisation, an impromptu. Because the Russian army has not prepared for such mobilization events for a long time, as the Soviet army once prepared. But they went through the first mobilization, and if they now need to simultaneously conscript another 200-300 thousand people, we can assume that this will happen more smoothly. They have already learned some lessons from this,” says Gendelman.

He emphasized that since 2022, the number of personnel of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine has increased significantly.

“The main factor that has changed at the front compared to the fall of 2022. Then the Russians had a maximum of 200 thousand people at the front, and now, according to Ukrainian estimates, it is almost 500 thousand. According to Russian statements – more than 600 thousand. That is, we see an increase of 2.5 – 3 times. It was due to this that the Russians managed to stop the Ukrainian offensive last year. Due to this, they are now leading their own,” the speaker continued.

Gendelman added that there are also many mobilized people fighting on the Ukrainian side, but in the Russian army they are the majority.

“We are returning to the experience of the Second World War, where almost the entire personnel of the Red Army was destroyed in the first months, and then until the end of the war the mobilized fought, who were trained as best they could. Today, on the Russian side, the majority are mobilized. All the talk about their quality and training is good, but you can fight without it. Because this is primarily a war of quantity. Russia still has several times more mobilization potential if we are talking about manpower,” he noted.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans to replenish the Russian armed forces: using mobilized and new contract soldiers, they plan to create two armies during this year – that is, recruit 200-300 thousand people. Gendelman has no doubt that if necessary, this number will be collected in Russia. But at the front, the military leadership will face a different problem – where to get weapons and equipment for so many new soldiers.

“They will still have a shortage of weapons and military equipment. Even if you look at the connections that are in open information, many of them are equipped with weapons and military equipment to a maximum of 50-60%. That is, all these plans of the Russian Ministry of Defense for two armies, 16 divisions, 14 brigades – where will they get enough weapons for all this?” – summed up the Israeli military expert.

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Let us recall that Gendelman believes that the current development of events at the front in Ukraine is reminiscent of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988.