Russia has lost two-thirds of its tanks since it invaded Ukraine as its military struggles with obsolete Soviet-era weapons, analyst says

• Russia has lost two-thirds of its tanks amid the stalled Ukraine invasion, a blog said.
• The figures confirm reports that Russia's armored vehicles have been decimated during the war.

The Russian military has lost at least two-thirds of its tanks since it began its war on Ukraine, according to analysts.

Oryx, a Netherlands-based open source intelligence website, said that the Kremlin's total tank loss in Ukraine now stands at around 2,000.

The website, which publishes a running tally of Russian military weapons and equipment losses based on pictures and other battlefield data, said 1,239 of the tanks had been destroyed, 106 damaged, 113 abandoned, and 544 captured.

Jakub Janovsky, a military analyst who contributes to the website, told Insider that Russia had started the war with around 3,000 operational tanks.

He said though that despite the high losses, Russia was "reactivating" tanks from the 4,000 it has in reserve to be deployed to the front line. Many of these tanks are from the Soviet-era.

"This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available," according to Oryx.

"Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here."

Janovsky said that a number of factors were behind the losses, including Russia's "reckless initial invasion plan," effective Ukrainian use of anti-tank weapons, and Ukrainian use of minefields and artillery.

"The ratio of equipment losses is still very favorable to Ukraine, but less so than it was in autumn last year," said Janovsky.

During the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow, when Russia marked its victory in World War II, analysts noted that the scaled back event was an indication of the equipment losses Russia has suffered in Ukraine.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin usually uses the parade to highlight Russia's military resurgence and show off the latest Russian tanks, this year the only tank taking part was a single Stalin-era tank.

In face of the steep losses, Russia has sought to adapt its battlefield use of tanks, according to a recent report by the UK-based Royal United Services Institute.

The losses have even forced Russia to pull old Soviet-era tanks out of storage and deploy them on the battlefield, Insider reported last year.

Despite the equipment shortages suffered by the Russian military on the front line, Russia continues to showcase advanced military technology at global arms fairs, the UK's military intelligence said.