Despite having the fourth largest army in the world, Russia is the superpower when it comes to tank supplies, with 12,950 in 2020 - more than double the US number, which ranked second with 6,333 vehicles. tilla.

But as Russian aggression in Ukraine continues into its seventh week, it appears President Vladimir Putin's military forces may be facing heavy losses, the Telegraph reports.

As we have seen, various images have shown Russian tanks destroyed - images that have been posted and shared on social media since the beginning of the aggression in Ukraine.

In fact, since March 24, the Kremlin has lost hundreds of tanks since the start of the aggression in February, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Russian vehicles have suffered heavy losses thanks to Ukrainian troops armed with anti-tank missiles, including the next-generation UK Light Anti-Tank Weapon, or NLAW, and the US Javelin anti-tank missile.

This has led some experts to say that the war has changed and that tanks and armored personnel carriers are already "out of fashion", reports Telegrafi.

"They are very expensive and easily destroyed by anti-tank light weapons or drones," wrote on Twitter Anders Aslund, an expert on Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

According to the Oryx organization, Russia has lost a total of 450 tanks: 221 were destroyed, six were damaged, 41 were abandoned and 182 were taken by the Ukrainians.

And it is estimated that Russia could lose even more with the introduction of the "Switchblades", US combat drones designed to attack personnel and light vehicles.

On Tuesday, defense officials announced that they were training Ukrainian soldiers in the US on how to use weapons to attack enemy tanks and armored vehicles.

The 100 drones, which are carried in a backpack, were part of a $ 800 million military aid package for Ukraine, the Telegraph reports.

So, since Russia has lost hundreds of tanks, does this mean that these armored vehicles are now becoming "out of fashion" in modern warfare?

"Not yet," said Scott Boston, a senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation's global policy institute.

"The first and most obvious proof I have of this is that Ukrainians are now looking for more armored vehicles," Boston told Yahoo News.

"And they would love to get support from the US and the West with more armored vehicles and more tanks."

Otherwise, last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked NATO to either donate or sell 500 tanks to his country.

"You have at least 20,000 tanks," he told alliance leaders.

"Ukraine demanded that a percentage, 1% of all your tanks be given to us or sold."

However, it is not clear what kind of tanks Zelensky was looking for.

According to Boston, a specific division of Russian tanks lost many vehicles due to abandonment and not due to direct enemy action.

With that in mind, Boston told Yahoo News that he did not know that "we are still in the last generation of man-made tanks."

He explained that this is because the infantry will be used on the battlefields for many years to come and thus tanks will also be needed to support the soldiers on foot.

A remark was also made by the former British army officer, now a military defense analyst, who said people should be careful to "avoid drawing the wrong conclusions" about tanks.

"Russia's catastrophic tactics have been a terrible advertisement for tanks," Nicholas Drummond wrote on Twitter.

"There is no artillery support.

No infantry support.

"No air support," he said, referring to images showing Russian tanks destroyed.

"This is not how combined weapons tactics work in an age of multi-domain operations."

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Telegraphy

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