Data collected from open sources indicate that the Russian army has lost a huge number of T-90M tanks, the most modern at its disposal, which are considered the pride of the Russian arms industry.

Russia has lost 34 T-90M tanks, compared with an estimated 100 before the start of the “special military operation” on February 24, according to data released by Oryx, an independent website that tracks losses for both armies fighting in Ukraine. last year.

Of them, 21 tanks were destroyed, 6 were damaged, 5 were damaged and abandoned by the crew, two more were captured by the Ukrainian military. Oryx maintains a detailed record of each lost piece of equipment, with links to video footage, photographs and other sources that confirm the destruction or damage of the respective weapon.

This means that overall the actual number of equipment losses may be much higher, as Oryx only considers confirmed losses from such open sources. But in this case, given that Ukrainians take pride in destroying such Russian tanks, it is likely that the balance published by an independent site is close to the real figure.

Based on this premise, this would mean that Russia has lost a third of the total number of T-90M tanks it had before the invasion of Ukraine.

How many Leopard 2 tanks did Ukraine lose?

By comparison, Ukraine lost 15 of the 71 Leopard 2 tanks received from Germany and its other partners. But Forbes noted earlier in the week that only 5 of them had actually been destroyed, and many had been towed away and are in repair shops.

In addition, Forbes noted that all 5 Ukrainian crews of the destroyed Leopard 2 tanks survived after their combat vehicles were shot down by Russia.

This is largely due to the fact that the German manufacturers KMW and Rheinmetall created tanks with special compartments in the tower that explode outwards when they hit the cars, saving the crew.

Their design is diametrically opposed to the design of Russian tanks, the ammunition of which is stored under the tower. As numerous videos have shown in recent months since the beginning of the Russian invasion, this type of ammunition storage leads to a catastrophic explosion of shells when the tank is hit from above, but not only.

The tank crew dies instantly from the detonation of on-board ammunition.

A video shared on social media last December showed that T-90M tanks could also suffer the same fate.

Losses of Russian T-90 tanks have tripled over the past six months

The Russian army threw a T-90 tank into battle in Ukraine in May, the first was destroyed by the Ukrainians just days after it arrived at the front. Later, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine released a video showing how its soldiers destroyed a tank with a Swedish-made Carl Gustav anti-tank grenade launcher.

“We thank the people and the king of Sweden for their help,” the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv said at the time, emphasizing that this launcher was used to destroy the “pride of Russian tank-building.”

Only on November 28 was there confirmation that the Ukrainians destroyed the second T-90M tank, which was part of an armored column destroyed in the Kharkiv region, probably during the chaotic withdrawal of Russian troops from there.

The third T-90M tank was destroyed by the Ukrainians in mid-December, with a good hit from the Stugna-P mobile anti-tank installation.

By February 22 of this year, the Russian army had lost 10% of its pre-war fleet of T-90M tanks, and over the past 6 months the percentage of losses has almost tripled.

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