Russia has lost at least 1,500 tanks since the start of the Ukraine war, more than half of its invasion force: report

• More than 1,500 Russian tanks have been lost since it invaded Ukraine, a monitoring group found.
• That's over half of the operational tanks Russia likely started its invasion with, the group said.

Russia has lost more than 1,500 tanks, around half of its operational fleet, in Ukraine, according to a Dutch monitoring group that has been tracking Russian equipment losses.

Onyx, an open-source intelligence analysis platform, said in an update this week that at least 1,000 Russian tanks had been destroyed since the war began, and 544 more captured.

That's more than half of the operational tanks that Russia is believed to have started its invasion with in February 2022.

Jakub Janovsky, a military analyst taking part in the tracker, told CNN that Russia started the war with around 3,000 tanks "so there is a good chance that Russia has lost one half of [its] usable tanks."

It is not clear if Russia has managed to replenish its tank force.

Onyx said its figures for lost Russian tanks represent only those where there is photographic or video evidence of their destruction, and that "all possible effort" went into making sure that no equipment was recorded twice.

This means that the amount of Russian equipment that has actually been destroyed is likely "significantly higher" than what's been recorded, the group said.

It also said that it was able to confirm 79 additional Russian tanks as damaged, and 65 that it could confirm as abandoned.

There is no official count for how many tanks Russia has in Ukraine.

Reports of Russian tanks destroyed and Ukrainian troops seizing tanks from Russian forces have been widespread since the invasion began.

The UK Ministry of Defence said last October that Ukrainian troops had likely captured at least 440 tanks, and that captured vehicles were boosting Ukraine's own equipment stocks.

It suggested that captured tanks likely accounted for over half of Ukraine's deployed tank force.

In October, Forbes reported that Russia had lost on average 10 tanks a day in the six weeks since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is set to receive modern, advanced tanks from its Western allies.

The US said last month that it will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, though they will not arrive for several months.

Germany is sending Ukraine its Leopard 2 tanks, with other European countries also planning to send tanks to Ukraine.