Putin's tank problem in the Ukraine war: Russia is probably repairing it with refrigerator and dishwasher parts

Created: 05/14/2022, 16:42

By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi

In the Ukraine war, Putin's troops probably have to repair their defective tanks with kitchen spare parts.

The USA sees this as a success of the sanctions.

Munich - The Ukraine conflict brings a lot of destroyed Russian military equipment with it.

The troops of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian military continue to fight fiercely.

This map shows where the Ukraine war is raging.

Russia makes extensive use of tanks, while the Ukrainian army is busy using artillery, Javelin anti-tank missiles and Bayraktar drones to eliminate these tanks.

According to Ukrainian data, 1,218

Russian military tanks

While this number cannot be independently verified, visual evidence shows that Putin's army suffered heavy tank losses.

Photos from the Seversky-Donetsk River in eastern Ukraine show dozens of destroyed Russian tanks and armored cars in a small patch.

The Russian military also seems to have difficulty repairing defective tanks - due to a lack of spare parts.

Russian troops are said to have resorted to kitchen appliances for this.

Ukraine war: Putin's tank repaired with kitchen appliance parts?

- USA see effectiveness of sanctions

Shortly after the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the first sanctions came from the West.

Both the US and EU imposed sanctions on Russia and certain Russian names to corner Moscow.

The US sees the fact that Russia is now having problems repairing damaged tanks and having to use spare parts for kitchen appliances as a sign of the success of sanctions.

Referring to her meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in a Senate hearing, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stressed, according to The

: "We have reports from Ukrainians that Russian military equipment is equipped with semiconductors that they took from dishwashers and refrigerators. This was apparently intended to replace missing components.

According to the minister, this is a consequence of the fact that American technology exports to Russia have fallen by around 70 percent since the sanctions began at the end of February.

Russian soldiers repair a tank.

They should also use spare parts from old kitchen appliances for this.

(Iconic image) © Sergei Bobylev/imago

According to Raimondo, the sanctions were intended to do just that.

For example, two tank manufacturers in Russia stopped production due to missing components.

"Our approach was to deny Russia technology - technology that would cripple their ability to continue a military operation," the minister said at the hearing. "That is exactly what we are doing." Ministry spokesman Robyn Patterson later confirmed that this information came directly from Ukrainian officials, the

reported .

War in Ukraine: Semiconductor sanctions even before invasion - Putin's army uses parts from kitchen appliances

However, the US Secretary of Commerce's account of the success of the sanctions imposed directly in connection with the Ukraine war could only be correct to a certain extent.

Because even before the war in Ukraine, both the USA and other western countries had regulated the supply of semiconductors to Russia for military purposes.

In the US, you needed a license from the government to export them, according to the

.

However, it was possible to obtain semiconductors for commercial use.

In this way, Russia was finally able to use the materials purchased for commercial purposes for military purposes and build them into military equipment.

The new sanctions in the background of the Ukraine crisis have only tightened these rules and severely restricted exports to non-military users, even for commercial purposes only.

The semiconductors from kitchen appliances could therefore have been built into Russian tanks before the Ukraine invasion.

Without a doubt, however, the Western sanctions had a significant impact on the already weakened Russian armaments industry.