Russia lost more than half of its tanks in the Ukraine war.
Medvedev announces compensation for the losses.
Will thousands roll off the assembly line soon?
Moscow - The tank deliveries to Ukraine recently promised by Western countries do not seem to leave Russia indifferent - just as the visit of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj to the European capitals Paris, London and Brussels in the past few days.
Because Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and current deputy head of the Russian Security Council, now made direct reference to these events in a video and announced in response the "production and modernization of thousands of tanks".
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Dmitry Medvedev (centre) visits a tank factory in Osmk on Thursday (9 February).
© Yekaterina Shtukina/Imago
Medvedev wants "thousands of tanks" for the Russia-Ukraine war
"As you know, yesterday our enemy begged for planes, missiles and tanks abroad," Dmitry Medvedev told workers at an engineering company in the Siberian city of Omsk yesterday.
The production facility specializes in weapon construction.
Medvedev had distributed a video of his visit to Omsk himself.
"How should we answer?" he asks in it.
For the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, it is clear: "It is clear that in this case it is natural for us to increase the production of various types of weapons and military equipment, including modern tanks," he said.
"We're talking about the production and modernization of thousands of tanks," he continued.
Medvedev is considered an absolute supporter of the aggressive war against Ukraine and is a close confidant of Vladimir Putin.
According to experts, a law passed last summer enables Russia to have a quasi-war economy.
That means the Russian state can oblige the company to produce equipment that Russia needs for the Ukraine war.
And while Russia always emphasizes that it is militarily far superior to Ukraine and its partners, international experts assess the situation very differently: Russia has already lost many tanks in the Ukraine war.
High losses in the Ukraine war: Russia has lost more than half of its tanks
Oryx
, an open-source group that evaluates visual evidence (photos) of destroyed war material, provides accurate Russian casualty figures.
They have now explained the figures they determined on Russian tank losses in more detail
to the US television broadcaster
CNN .
According to this, Russia has already lost more than half of its tanks: 1,000 Russian tank losses are clearly confirmed, another 544 Russian tanks were captured by Ukrainian forces, 79 damaged and 65 abandoned, according to
Oryx
.
"Russia started the war with around 3,000 operational tanks... so there's a good chance Russia lost half (of its) usable tanks," Jakub Janovsky, a military analyst at
Oryx,
now told
CNN.
Many Russian tanks are also in poor maintenance: "On paper, Russia still has many tanks, but many have not been properly stored and may be difficult to reactivate quickly," Janovsky said.
According to
CNN
, experts have also found serious weaknesses in Russian tanks.
They would have a design flaw where a single aimed hit could detonate them
And producing new tanks will be difficult for Russia: "Due to sanctions, they may have to replace sensors and electronics with inferior alternatives - and the amount they can produce in the short term is a fraction of what they lose."
These material losses … are not sustainable,” Janovsky assessed the Russian situation back in September.
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Dmitri Medvedev (2nd from left) in the Omsk Transport Machinery Plant.
© Ekaterina Shtukina/Pool Sputnik via AP/dpa
Selenskyj is asking the EU for more weapons for the Ukraine war: Great Britain wants to train fighter pilots
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has called for more arms supplies from EU states, including fighter jets.
During his visit to Brussels yesterday, where he delivered a well-received speech to the European Parliament, he said: "I have no right to come home without results.
In order for us to survive the Russian weapons, we need these weapons.” No additional concrete commitments regarding arms deliveries had been made by the EU member states.
On Wednesday he had already been to talks in London and Paris.
And Great Britain had announced that it wanted to train Ukrainian soldiers on fighter jets.
List of rubrics: © Ekaterina Shtukina/Pool Sputnik via AP/dpa
