Out of 120 battalion tactical groups deployed on Day 1, twenty have been completely annihilated. Not a single vehicle is left.
Russia is attempting to draw tank reserves from long-term storage depots, but is finding 9 out of 10 of the tanks are unusable due to cannibalization of parts like engines, drive wheels, and autoloaders, or outright theft of parts and circuit boards that contain precious metals. Upon learning this past week that his tank reserve was non-existent, the commander of Russia's 4th Guards Tank Division (whose depot is located in suburban Moscow), Colonel Yevgeny Nikolayevich Zhuravlyov, shot himself in the head. The 4th Tank Guards Division is part of the 1st Guards Tank Army, which has seen wild turnover at the top command slot in the last 3 weeks.
Nearly 1900 Russian combat vehicles of all types have been lost, representing close to 20% of the armor that crossed into Ukraine 4 weeks ago at the start of the war. 688 of those vehicles were captured intact by Ukraine, and are now part of the Ukrainian Army.
Morale in the lower ranks is plummeting. In the 37th Motorized Rifle Brigade, morale is so low that a tank driver ran over his commander with his tank. Reports say Colonel Yuri Medvedev lived for a short while and then died of injuries sustained from the attack. The mutinous attack was reportedly triggered by the frustration brewing within the ranks resulting from a recent battle where half of the brigade's vehicles and personnel were lost and left behind.
The Russian tradition of dedovshchina - the vicious hazing of conscripts by officers and non-comms - has resulted in morale so low among conscripts that they are being removed entirely from Ukraine in an attempt to stem the flow of desertions and abandonment of vehicles. (25% of Russia's Army is made up of conscripts.)
