500 Days of War in Ukraine – 232,000 Dead or Wounded: The Ukrainian counteroffensive is in its fourth week. Kyiv has been making progress but at a slower pace than expected.
The Ukrainian forces have been using their new Western weapon systems with mixed success.
Ordeal by Fire in Ukraine
The Ukrainian military has been finding the hard way that some of its new Western weapon systems aren’t fit for breaching the defenses of an entrenched enemy.
The AMX-10RC tank killers, for example, have been taking some losses from artillery and anti-tank weapons. In one case, a Ukrainian four-man crew operating the French-made armored vehicle was killed when a Russian 152mm artillery shell detonated next to the tank killer and penetrated its thin armor, detonating the ammunition inside.
“The guns are good, the observation devices are very good. But unfortunately, there is thin armour and it is impractical to use them in the front line (attack),” a Ukrainian battalion commander within the 37th Marine Brigade told France24.
The AMX-10RC is better suited for armed reconnaissance tasks in open territory. The tank killer would be ideal to widen an operational breakthrough once it has been achieved. But using it against entrenched, mutually supported defensive positions protected by some of the most extensive minefields in modern warfare suggests a lack of operational judgment on the Ukrainian part.
The Ukrainian forces have also lost a handful of Leopard 2A main battle tanks. However, in the case of the German-made armored behemoths (they weigh more than 60 tons), most of the tanks weren’t completely destroyed but only incapacitated.
As far as infantry fighting vehicles, the Ukrainian military has lost several M2 Bradleys, some of which have managed to recover from the battlefield and repair. Most crucially, however, most M2 Bradleys saved their crews when struck, thus fulfilling their most important mission. After all, a tank or infantry fighting vehicle can be replaced (the U.S. has already sent dozens of M2 Bradleys to replenish Ukrainian stocks), but a well-trained and battle-hardened crew is hard to replace.
Other Ukrainian weapon systems are performing as expected. Long-range fires are particularly dependable. The Ukrainian military is using artillery to take out Russian logistical nodes behind the frontlines with long-range fires. This week, a Ukrainian precision-guided rocket took out a big Russian ammunition depot with spectacular results inside Makiivka in the Donetsk Oblast. And this is just one instance of a long-range strike against the Russian supply lines.
Russian Casualties
Meanwhile, on day 500 of the Russian invasion, the Russian forces continued to lose a steady number of men and weapon systems every day.
Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Friday, Ukrainian forces have killed and wounded approximately 232,810 Russian troops.
Equipment destroyed 322 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 309 attack and transport helicopters, 4,070 tanks, 4,330 artillery pieces, 7,744 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 658 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 18 boats and cutters, 6,898 vehicles and fuel tanks, 408 anti-aircraft batteries, 3,652 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 612 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 1,271 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.
A 19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
