Britain’s armed forces chief says Russia has lost half its combat capability in Ukraine

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The head of Britain’s armed forces has said the Russian army has lost half of its combat effectiveness in Ukraine, including 2,500 tanks, and the main effort to counter-attack Kiev is still to come.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin dismissed suggestions that Ukraine’s counter-offensive was progressing slowly, arguing that the push against Russia “was never a singular action”, and that Kiev’s “hunger The military strategy of “die, draw and attack” was slowly breaking down the Russian defensive lines.

Ukraine has struggled to penetrate Russia’s heavy defenses in its counteroffensive launched a month ago, dashing hopes of some of Kiev’s Western allies that Ukraine’s armed forces will make a swift breakthrough.

“The question is, how do you take a front line over a thousand kilometers long and turn it into more of a problem for Russia than Ukraine?” Radakin told a parliamentary hearing. “That’s why you’re seeing so many ax investigations and fraud by Ukraine.”

Radakin acknowledged that the “stronger than expected” density of Russian landmines, the lack of Ukrainian air cover and “not having all the (military) equipment they (Kiev) wanted” had complicated the campaign.

But he also said it was unfair to bind Ukraine to a time frame and that “Russia is now so weakened that it does not have the strength to strike back.”

“Russia has lost almost half of its military’s combat effectiveness,” Radakin said. “Last year it fired 10 million artillery shells, but at most 1 million shells can be made in a year. It has lost 2,500 tanks and at most can produce 200 (new) tanks a year,” he said.

Britain is the second largest provider of military aid to Ukraine after the US, and has been at the forefront of providing Kiev with advanced military equipment, including main battle tanks and long-range cruise missiles.

In an often testy series of talks with members of the UK Parliament’s Defense Committee, Radakin also defended the British Armed Forces’ own state of preparedness – although he acknowledged that the army was using armored vehicles that were “really old”. Are.

“We need to have deeper reserves, we need to be more lethal and we need to increase our productivity,” Radakin said. “I wouldn’t say I’m happy.”

The Ministry of Defense is about to release a long-delayed command paper on how the British armed forces will spend their annual defense budget of around £50 billion. Radakin said he “understood” that it would be published before the start of Parliament’s summer recess on 20 July.