After 10 months of War with Ukraine, Russian Military Lost 286 Aircrafts

After 10 months of War with Ukraine, Russian Military Lost 286 Aircrafts

International Military - Russia has reportedly lost 286 aircraft during its war in Ukraine which has entered its 10th month. The figure is a tally by the Netherlands-based open-source military tracking site Oryx.

As of Friday (2/12/2022), according to Oryx, the Kremlin's military has lost a total of 286 aircraft since the invasion began on February 24. Hundreds of these aircraft, including fighters, transport aircraft and drones, have been destroyed, damaged or captured. In comparison, Oryx calculates that the Ukrainian military has lost 129 aircraft in the same time period.

Early last month, the UK Ministry of Defense predicted that Russia was losing its aircraft faster than it could replace them because of its poorly trained air force. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, also estimated at the time that Russia had lost 278 aircraft by 3 November, twice as many as what the Russian military lost during the Soviet-Afghan War from 1979 to 1989.

Oryx notes that its report is based on destroyed air assets available in photographic or videographic evidence or pilot death notifications -- meaning the total number of missing aircraft is expected to be much higher than the total count reported through Friday.

Russia is alleged to have depleted its stockpile of military equipment compared to Ukraine. Oryx reports that while Ukraine has lost more than 300 tanks and 200 armored vehicles in the war, Russia has lost more than 1,500 tanks since invading its western neighbor.

The Russian army has been largely overwhelmed by Ukrainian troops after misjudging its ability to seize the former Soviet country. One report from a British think tank; The Royal United Services Institute on Friday outlined four key assumptions Russia had made before the invasion, according to a copy of the order signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Some sources also report very low morale among Putin's troops, a result of poor training and a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive that forced the Russians to withdraw from once-occupied cities. In response, Russia has focused most of its energy in recent weeks targeting civilian infrastructure and shutting down power across Ukraine.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that targeting civilian infrastructure had "become an inevitable and inevitable response to Kiev's provocative attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure". The threat of a future missile attack from Russia, however, prompted Spain to increase Ukraine's stockpile, according to a tweet from Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

In his speech late Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said officials continued to secure critical support from some European allies for the launch of a special tribunal on Russian aggression. "London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw and other capitals... We are strengthening our positions everywhere, garnering support from our partners," Zelensky said. "I believe there will be a trial, there will be justice," he said. The Russian Defense Ministry has so far not commented on the losses Moscow has suffered during its invasion of the last 10 months.