Russian Army’s Use of Donkeys in Ukraine Underscores a Staggering Equipment Shortage

Russian soldiers look to beryllium using horses and donkeys to transport supplies to and from the beforehand lines successful Ukraine arsenic precocious losses and insufficient accumulation person created acute instrumentality shortages.

Meanwhile, the Russian service has resorted to utilizing civilian vehicles for attacks connected Ukrainian positions, reducing combat effectiveness, expanding casualties and slowing their advance.

As U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for a negotiated extremity to Russia’s three-year war, galore analysts warn that immoderate bid statement allowing Russia to clasp connected to occupied territories would beryllium unstable, perchance starring to renewed aggression against Ukraine oregon adjacent an attack connected NATO countries.

While these diplomatic efforts hum along, determination are questions astir the authorities of the Russian subject and its quality to retrieve from losses aft 3 years of aggravated warring — particularly aft pro-Russian Telegram channels circulated photos of donkeys being utilized astatine the beforehand lines past month.

Pro-war blogger Kirill Fedorov claimed that the Defense Ministry had sent a donkey to his portion owed to a shortage of vehicles. More grounds of Russian soldiers utilizing donkeys, horses and adjacent camels to transport supplies emerged soon after.

Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, a subordinate of the Russian State Duma’s Defense Committee, said the army’s usage of battalion animals was a “normal” practice.

Since the opening of the war, Russian troops person relied connected civilian vehicles for logistical support, often purchasing them with their ain wealth oregon done unpaid fundraising. These vehicles are utilized for proscription successful the rear, delivering supplies and unit reinforcements. 

However, successful caller months, determination person been expanding cases of Russian soldiers launching assaults connected Ukrainian positions successful mean civilian cars.

One video captured by a Ukrainian drone shows a file of civilian vehicles being struck by mortars and FPV drones, resulting successful dense losses. And this is acold from the lone case. The Russian subject has adjacent started utilizing scooters for proscription connected the beforehand line. 

Other videos picture Russian troops attempting attacks connected motorcycles, which besides effect successful important casualties.

According to the OSINT task Oryx, Russia has lost implicit 15,000 pieces of subject hardware since launching its full-scale penetration successful February 2022, including much than 3,700 tanks and astir 8,000 armored vehicles. The fig of destroyed civilian vehicles is adjacent higher.

Military expert Yan Matveev noted that combat vehicles chiefly service arsenic unit transporters. Infantry warring vehicles (IFVs) and armored unit carriers (APCs) are designed to determination soldiers crossed “no man's land” to force positions oregon evacuate them, providing immoderate level of protection. 

However, Russia’s IFVs person proven inadequate successful Ukraine and the state lacks mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles, which the U.S. supplies to Ukraine.

The expanding dominance of drones connected the battlefield has made attacks adjacent much perilous. Recently, Ukrainian forces decimated an armored file from Russia’s elite 155th brigade arsenic it attempted to beforehand crossed unfastened terrain successful the Kursk region. 

Analysts accidental that repeated costly assaults person severely depleted Russia’s conveyance reserves.

“The captious shortage of proscription successful the Russian service has wholly deprived it of the quality to behaviour strategical violative operations,” Matveev said. 

Even section battlefield breakthroughs person go hard to exploit, helium said, arsenic Russian forces conflict to transportation reinforcements oregon resupply advancing troops. This has resulted successful a slow, grinding benignant of warfare.

Despite setbacks, Ukrainian forces person managed to clasp antiaircraft lines, mostly due to the fact that Russia’s logistical web is stretched thin, Matveev said.

Due to instrumentality shortages, Russian units person begun utilizing civilian vehicles, including cars and minibuses, to transport unit and supplies. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces employment specified vehicles, but they deficiency the indispensable armor, making them highly susceptible to drone attacks arsenic some sides actively people each other’s logistics.

Videos filmed by Russian soldiers show frontline roads littered with burned-out civilian and subject vehicles. As a result, the Russian service has occasionally resorted to utilizing battalion animals for transporting ammunition and different supplies. 

Military adept Pavel Luzin noted that different countries’ militaries usage battalion animals successful hard terrain similar deserts oregon mountains. 

“In the steppes of Ukraine, wherever determination is an extended roadworthy network, the usage of animals is purely owed to a deficiency of transportation,” helium told The Moscow Times.

In immoderate places, the concern is adjacent much dire. 

On the battlefield adjacent Pokrovsk, a cardinal Donetsk portion stronghold for Kyiv, Russian troops indispensable march 18 kilometers (11 miles) connected ft owed to conveyance losses, Russian subject blogger Svyatoslav Golikov reported. Supplies, reinforcements and ammunition deliveries person slowed dramatically.

The nonaccomplishment of armored vehicles and worsening logistics person already affected the gait of Russian advances. Data from the Ukrainian OSINT task Deep State shows that successful aboriginal February, the Russian service captured the smallest magnitude of Ukrainian territory since June 2024, according to an investigation by the outlet Agentsvo.

Since the commencement of the war, Russia has been capable to marque up for its dense conveyance losses by pulling aged Soviet-era vehicles from retention and restoring them — but these reserves are present depleted. Satellite imagery of Russian subject retention bases indicates that stocks of armored vehicles person declined by astir 32% since 2021, according to OSINT analysts cited by Newsweek.

The fig of MT-LB armored unit carriers has fallen from 2,527 earlier the warfare to conscionable 922 successful May 2024. Meanwhile, Soviet-era BTR-60, BTR-70 and BTR-80 armored unit carriers person been wholly removed from storage.

More than 40% of aged Soviet tanks and armored unit carriers were pulled from retention astatine the Vagzhanovo subject instrumentality basal successful the republic of Buryatia, The Moscow Times’ Russian work reported successful 2023, citing an investigation of outer images. 

Military experts person besides noted that the newest Russian T-90M tanks person been delivered to the beforehand without important components, apt owed to sanctions that person chopped Russia disconnected from cardinal technologies.

According to outer imagery, Soviet-era subject instrumentality successful retention bases whitethorn lone past until the extremity of 2025, Russian subject adept Yury Fedorov told Novaya Gazeta Europe. He said that instrumentality stockpiles are astir depleted, though it is intolerable to find precisely however overmuch weaponry remains successful storage. Experts besides enactment that not each instrumentality successful retention tin beryllium restored to moving condition.

Military adept Richard Vereker has observed a crisp diminution successful Russian vessel and APC losses, which helium attributes to the dwindling fig of these vehicles successful the field. 

However, helium notes an summation successful losses of newer models specified arsenic the BTR-82, suggesting that Russia’s defence manufacture is struggling to reconstruct older Soviet vehicles portion ramping up accumulation of much modern alternatives. 

Ukrainian subject adept Alexander Kovalenko said adjacent these newer models stock the aforesaid cardinal weakness arsenic their Soviet predecessors: mediocre armor protection.

Expert Luzin said that factories can’t support up with demand: “Factory capacities are constricted and losses are excessively high.” 

According to Forbes, Russia produces astir 200 caller BMP-3 IFVs and 90 caller T-90M tanks per year, on with respective 100 different armored vehicles, including BTR-82 APCs. However, this is acold from capable to regenerate vehicles destroyed connected the battlefield.

Pavel Aksyonov, a subject expert for the BBC’s Russian service, linked Russia’s inability to regenerate its losses to the information that it had not prepared for a prolonged warfare erstwhile it invaded Ukraine successful aboriginal 2022.

“For a abbreviated subject campaign, a state doesn’t request a unchangeable accumulation enactment of instrumentality and weapons — it conscionable needs a stockpile capable for its objectives,” Aksyonov said. “Russia’s system was not acceptable for a warfare of attrition, and it had to beryllium restructured.”

While Russia whitethorn not beryllium capable to rebuild its subject afloat for years, that does not mean it volition wantonness its semipermanent ambitions.

“Russia has not abandoned its goals — to destruct Ukraine, undermine NATO and situation U.S. leadership. This is an ideological information that does not person to instrumentality worldly factors into account,” Luzin said.

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