Edited by| Tony wild

politics section Editor - CJ

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        CNN reported that Russia lost big numbers of tanks and weapons since it started its invasion of Ukraine ... the report said that Russia has lost At least 1,000 Russian tanks, which have been destroyed in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a war monitoring group says, a number that, when coupled with Russian tanks captured or abandoned, could represent half of all operational tanks available to Moscow at the start of the war.

Oryx an open-source intelligence website, has been collecting visual evidence of military equipment losses in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2022.

The group said this week it has verified 1,000 distinct Russian tank losses in the war. It said a further 544 Russian tanks had been captured by Ukrainian forces, 79 damaged, and 65 abandoned.

That toll does not include losses Oryx has not been able to visually confirm, said Jakub Janovsky, a military analyst who contributes to the Oryx blog. He estimated the actual toll could be nearer 2,000 tanks.

“Russia started the war with around 3,000 operational tanks … so there is a good chance that Russia has lost one-half of (its) usable tanks,” Janovsky said.

Tanks have been a major focus of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and are seen as key for either Russia or Ukraine to take territory on the battlefield.

According to Oryx’s numbers, the tank fight has skewed Ukraine’s way. On Oryx’s count, the 500-plus tanks Ukraine has captured from Russia more than cover the 459 tanks it has lost.

And more tanks are on the way to Ukraine.

Since last month, Kyiv has received pledges for modern tanks from Germany, the United States, Britain, and other Western partners.

What’s more, those tanks are seen as having superior technology to the ones Russia is fielding.

Ukrainian officials had repeatedly pleaded with their Western allies to provide modern battle tanks that could be used not only to defend their present positions but to take the fight to the enemy.