Up to 50% of Ukraine's heavy weapons destroyed: Ukrainian officials

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Ukrainian land forces command logistics commander Volodymyr Karpenko revealed the losses of the Ukrainian forces amid the ongoing conflict his country is having with Russia.

Earlier this week, Karpenko declared that the Ukrainian military forces have lost up to 50% of their heavy weapons, including about 400 tanks, as well as a large number of military personnel. 

In an interview with National Defense Magazine, the official said that losses in equipment varied between 30% to 50%. In other words, Karpenko said the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost approximately 1,300 infantry fighting vehicles, 400 tanks, and 700 artillery systems.

During the same interview, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, Denys Sharapov, stated that Western supplies, despite all efforts, do not cover Ukraine’s military needs.

“We have received a large number of weapon systems, but unfortunately with such a massively expendable resource, it only covers 10 to 15 percent of our needs,” Sharapov said.

Without revealing specifics, Sharapov noted that Ukraine will the “need for heavy artillery systems is measured by hundreds” in order to be able to sustain the combat. The deputy minister argued that high-precision weapons, if given to Ukraine, will give the country the upper hand in its war against Russia. 

The deputy minister acknowledged the complications for Western allies while arranging for the transfer of military equipment inclusive of getting permission for technology transfer from all the subsystems. Sharapov, however, stressed the high importance of the conflict in Ukraine from his perspective.

Karpenko gave an estimate of the needs of their Armed Forces. 

“Think about this: one brigade occupies around 40 kilometers of the fence line. That means that to cover the active combat conflict we need 40 brigades. Every brigade is 100 infantry fighting vehicles, 30 tanks, 54 artillery systems – just for one brigade, and we have 40 of them,” he explained.

Ukrainian presidential aide Alexey Arestovich declared that the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since the beginning of the Russian operation in late February, had lost around 10,000 personnel. 

Read more: Stingers, Javelin missiles sent to Kiev sold on black market: Lavrov

On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry highlighted that in total, some 205 Ukrainian aircraft and 131 helicopters, 1,233 unmanned aerial vehicles, 342 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,387 tanks, and other armored combat vehicles, 539 multiple launch rocket systems, 2,013 field artillery and mortars, and 3,658 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed during the war in Ukraine.

Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement "We are once again urging EU and NATO countries to stop the senseless 'pumping' of the inviable Kiev regime with cutting edge weapons systems in order to avoid risks for international civilian aviation and other transport communications."

Moreover, experts also warned in late May of the continuous supply of Ukraine with military weapons. Nils Duquet, a researcher and director of the Flemish Peace Institute stated that "there are very significant risks associated with the proliferation of weapons in Ukraine at the moment, in particular regarding small arms and light weapons."

Western nations, most notably the US, have continuously pumped weapons into Kiev's army.

On June 5th, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that if Kiev is given long-range missiles, Russia will "draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms.... to strike targets we haven't hit before."

Putin did not define which targets may be targeted or the precise range of missiles to which Moscow would respond.

His remarks came just days after the US revealed that it would give Ukraine multiple High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

Read more: US arms supplies to Kiev may end up in shadow markets of other countries