The Ukrainian armed forces have likely captured at least 440 Russian Main Battle Tanks and around 650 other armored vehicles, according to UK intelligence.
Moreover, the UK intelligence report claims that at this point, over half of Ukraine’s currently fielded tank fleet potentially consists of captured vehicles.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 7 October 2022Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/zxsxakKNtO #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/pwIRUanlAg
— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) October 7, 2022
The reason for this phenomenon is that the Russian crews are failing to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering. This also points to the poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline, the report said.
UK intelligence has predicted that the Russian army will continue to lose heavy weaponry in Ukraine.
Some Twitter accounts have been documenting the trend since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
A few Russian T-62Ms captured today in Kherson Oblast Shevchenkivka pic.twitter.com/OnOeVhwrDy
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 4, 2022
The state of the war
The Ukrainian army has been on the move in recent weeks, liberating large swathes of land, especially in the Kharkiv Oblast region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the liberation of "settlements in several regions."
Recently, Ukraine has opened a hotline for Russian soldiers who wish to surrender. The Ukrainian government claims that thousands of phone calls have been made by Russian forces declaring their surrender to the ministry since the hotline debuted a few weeks ago.