Ukraine’s efforts to fight the Russian invasion of their territory have left a landscape of annihilated armor. With light, agile infantry forces using weapons like the FGM-148 Javelin and explosive-laden drones, Vladimir Putin and the Russian military are rethinking the way they wage war. Interestingly, part of the shift involves Russian soldiers trading their tanks and armored vehicles for cars and trucks.

Ukrainian successes against Russian armor have Vladimir Putin’s forces rethinking battlefield transportation

Since Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory in 2022, defending forces have destroyed over 100,000 pieces of military equipment. It’s a sobering statistic and a reminder of just how effective modern anti-armor weapons are at destroying vehicles.

Ukraine’s General Staff reports that their forces have destroyed around 9,900 tanks like the Russian T-14, T-90, and T-72. In addition to tanks, Russian forces have lost thousands of armored vehicles like infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and armored personnel carriers (APCs). 

In response to the catastrophic loss of materiel and personnel, Vladimir Putin’s forces are shifting their attention to smaller, less conventional vehicles, per Defence Blog. Rather than relying exclusively on tanks and armored vehicles, Russian soldiers are reportedly using vehicles like civilian cars, off-roaders, and even golf carts to conduct assaults.

Ukraine, on the other hand, maintains that the shift is an indication of armor supply challenges. According to ArmyInform, the Ukrainian military holds that Russian forces might be running into armor supply issues. Given the extent of the campaign’s armored vehicle losses, that seems like a likely explanation.

Now, this is far from the first time conventional forces have resorted to using unarmored vehicles. During my time in the Marines, my unit used lightweight helicopter-deployable vehicles as mobile machine gun platforms. What these vehicles lacked in armor, they made up for in easy transport around battle spaces.