For Russia, the loss of thousands of tanks is an accepted cost of Putin's war in Ukraine

Days before the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s top military leaders had a sharp message to share. 

“We are ready to meet the enemy, and not with flowers, but with Stingers, Javelins and NLAWs,” the leaders of Ukraine’s army and defence ministry warned, name-checking the very weapons they would use against their invaders.

Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has used Western-supplied anti-tank weapons, their made-in-Ukraine equivalents and drones, to hit Russian tanks on the wrong side of the border.

Russia has reportedly lost thousands of tanks to the invasion, but continues to send these hefty war machines to the front lines despite their apparent vulnerabilities.

A mural of the fictional