Russia has what it needs to fight on in Ukraine for at least another year, according to experts at a leading security research organisation.
Moscow’s forces are slowly but steadily advancing in what has become a war of attrition, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.
“Attrition being such an important factor on land, Russia has the initiative and Ukraine is fighting a defensive land battle,” said IISS senior land warfare analyst Ben Barry.
“If Russia wishes to prolong the war I judge it has the potential
human, equipment and logistical resources to continue to do so
through the rest of this year.”
In an annual assessment, the IISS said Russia also appeared better able to maintain the size of its military than Ukraine – but it had a serious tank problem.
Moscow lost 1,400 tanks in 2024 and is struggling to make new ones at a fast enough rate to replace them.
“Russia is increasingly trading quality for quantity to support its war effort,” the report said.
“The scale of its equipment losses fighting against Ukraine has meant that, to keep units equipped, it has had to draw down from its stocks of Soviet-era armour.”
Moscow has fallen back on small numbers of vintage armoured personnel carriers built in the 1950s and tanks built in the 1960s.
Leave a Reply