Russia Has Replaced Every Single Armored Vehicle It Has Lost In Ukraine
But now strategic reserves are depleted
Despite heavy losses, Russia has as many armored infantry carriers today as when it invaded Ukraine
But most replacements came from long-term storage—a single-use resource now nearly exhausted
Russia loses 2,400 IFVs and APCs yearly but builds only 900—a 1,500-vehicle annual deficit
With storage depleted, Russia faces a structural vehicle shortage for any future wars
The Russian armed forces went to war in Ukraine in February 2022 with 13,800 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. In 47 months of hard fighting, they’ve lost no fewer than 9,200 of these vehicles—the heavily armed IFVs and lightly armed APCs that haul infantry around the battlefield.
Yet Russia has managed to replace virtually every one. The Russian IFV and APC fleet “is now in most regards approximately comparable or slightly larger to what the Russian military had operational at the start of the 2022 invasion,” Czech analyst Jakub Janovsky wrote.
The catch: Russia burned through a one-time strategic reserve to do it. Annual losses run around 2,400 vehicles; annual production is just 900. That 1,500-vehicle gap will start bleeding Russia’s fleet the moment storage runs dry—which, according to Janovsky, has essentially already happened.
