Wall Street Journal: How Russia Unwittingly Became Ukraine’s Military’s Main ‘Supplier’

From its beginnings war in Ukraine, Russia has left more weapons on the battlefield than Western countries have handed over to Kyiv, writes the American newspaper The Wall Street Journalpointing out that Russia has unwittingly become the main “supplier” of weapons to the Ukrainian military.

The paper, citing Oryx analysts and military officials, says that based on open imgs, Oryx recorded that Ukraine has already captured 460 Russian tanks, 92 self-propelled howitzers, 448 infantry fighting vehicles, 195 armored fighting vehicles and 44 multiple rocket launchers. All of this is more than what all of Ukraine’s allies have supplied.

It is pointed out that the actual number of Russian weapons that have fallen into the hands of the Ukrainians may be even higher, as not all of them are captured on video and photos. Also, Western weapons are more advanced and more accurate than those left on the battlefield by Russian forces.

“What they are occupying is a mix of modern weapons that can be used effectively and some that belong in museums,” says Oryx analyst Jakub Janowski.

The experts point out that the Russia seized a part of the weapons of the Ukrainian army. This he did mainly in the early days of the war. According to Oryx’s calculations, 106 Ukrainian tanks, 15 self-propelled howitzers and 63 infantry vehicles have fallen into the hands of the Russians since February.

In the city of Izium in the Kharkiv region, from which the Russian forces withdrew after the Ukrainian counterattack, the Ukrainian army managed to get more modern Russian weapons, writes the WSJ, claiming that Kyiv now has Russian T-90 tanks in its hands and BTR-82 vehicles.

The deputy commander of the brigade of the Ukrainian army “Karpatskaya Setch” Andrei Andreyko said that the military in Izium managed to capture ten modern T-80 main battle tanks and five self-propelled 155mm “Giatsint” howitzers.

“We have so much loot, we don’t know what to do with it. We started as an infantry brigade and now we have become a motorized brigade,” said Andreyko.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have repeatedly sent Kyiv military aid. According to BBC calculations, the US alone has sent $12.5 billion in military aid.

On October 4, US President Joe Biden announced that the US will provide a new $625 million military aid package to Ukraine, which includes the HIMARS multiple launch systems.