After careful calculation, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for more than half a year. Not only did countries around the world not think of this thing, I am afraid that even Putin himself did not think of it. In fact, in the years when Putin was in power, many wars, big and small, were fought. Although there were some obstacles during the period, but overall, the Russian army won. It is precisely because the results of these victories are piled up that the Russian high-level and military leaders have the idea of not underestimating the enemy. At this moment, it is not only Russia, but even countries around the world dare not underestimate the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian army.
Of course, till this time, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is still in fierce battle, and we cannot accurately predict the final outcome at all. But both Russia and Ukraine paid a huge price for this war. According to an estimate by Forbes magazine, the losses of the Russian military’s military equipments on the battlefield alone has exceeded 16.5 billion US dollars.
The most expensive military equipment that the Russian military lost in this war was the flagship named as Moskva, the Slava-class Guided-missile cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet. Russia has always claimed that this ship sank because of a fire on the ship. The Ukrainian army said it was sunk by their Neptune missiles. Although the Moskva is an old ship made during the Cold War, Russia has upgraded it as much as possible. This big Soviet-made battlemachine is worth a lot of money, up to 750 million US dollars. In addition, the Tapir-class large landing ship of the Russian Navy was sunk by a Tochka missile launched by the Ukrainian army when it was unloading at a Ukrainian port. This is also the first warship in the world to be sunk by a surface-to-surface missile. It was really a unfortunate loss for the Russian Navy. The price of this landing ship was in millions of US dollars.
The second largest loss is of the Russian Aerospace Forces. On the first day of the Russian army’s attack, the Russian Il-76 transport plane carrying the Russian army’s elite airborne troops wanted to raid the Antonov Airport in Ukraine, but was shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force fighter jets. The unit price of the Il-76 transport aircraft is as high as 86 million US dollars. Then, in order to provide close support to the ground troops, the Russian Aircrafts had to lower its flight altitude. As a result, it was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers using portable air defense missiles such as Stinger. Wreckages of Su-34 fighter-bombers, Su-30SM fighters, and Su-35 fighters were also found. These fighters are worth anywhere from $40 million to more than $50 million. Among the armed helicopter units belonging to the Russian Aerospace Forces, the Ka-52 helicopters were shot down even more times.
As a front-line force, the Russian Army has lost a larger amount of equipments, but the value of a single piece of equipment is not high, and many of them are old equipment. According to Forbes statistics, the Russian Army has lost more than 5,000 vehicles on the battlefield, including more than 900 main battle tanks. The most expensive equipment lost by the Russian Army is the S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems. After the Ukrainian army obtained the HIMARS rocket launcher and the HARM anti-radiation missiles, it launched an attack on the Russian S-300. According to the Ukrainian side, more than a dozen sets of S-300s have been destroyed. Of course, there are exaggerated elements, but the Ukrainian army must have achieved results.
If you want to say that the Russian army did not play well in this conflict at all, it would be a real injustice to them. But the loss of equipments is real. The losses of the Ukrainian army were also huge. It can only be said that the difference in combat power between the two sides is definitely not as big as some people imagined. After all, both sides were once members of the Soviet Red Army. In the eyes of the Russian army, they were prepared enough, but they still failed to win the war as they have expected.