When Ukrainian forces retook control of Rudnytske, a small village 40 miles east of Kyiv, the Russians left them a gift: three tanks and an infantry fighting vehicle.
As Ukrainian troops scrambled to retake the hard-fought city of Irpin on the other side of the capital, they collected a prized BMD-4M: an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle, the pride of the Moscow military.
Ukrainians have boasted in recent days that they have also seized a secret advanced electronic warfare system, sophisticated missiles, tanks and other armored personnel carriers, as well as rocket launchers and dozens of rifles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had become one of the main suppliers of arms to its enemy
“We lack supplies, but the Russians provide us with many weapons,” said Mamuka Mamulashvili, leader of a group of foreign fighters who took part in Sunday’s Rudnytske attack along with local forces.
His words echo President Volodymyr Zelensky’s mischievous claim that Russia has become one of the main arms suppliers to its enemy. “You couldn’t imagine something like that in a nightmare,” he said.
In a weekend interview, he pleaded with Western allies for more “aircraft, tanks and armored personnel carriers” but admitted his troops were “taking a lot” from the Russians.
Mr Zelensky told The Economist that just the day before Ukraine had seized “12 or 17 tanks” – and amazingly, thanks to this battlefield spoils, the defenders could now have more tanks and armored vehicles at their disposal than at the start of the war, despite their own heavy casualties.
Yuri Butusov, a well-known Ukrainian military journalist, believes that the country is gaining more tanks than it is losing. “Putin provides Ukraine with more military hardware than the West,” he says.
According to Butusov, the Ukrainians captured more than 1,000 pieces of military equipment, including at least 120 tanks that were either undamaged or relatively easy to repair.
According to Butusov, the Ukrainians captured more than 1,000 pieces of military equipment, including at least 120 tanks
“Some equipment needs repairs, but many of the vehicles are fine and our soldiers just pick them up and drive away,” said the journalist, who has posed on social media with a captured Kornet anti-tank missile.
Other analysts who document the conflict using photo or video evidence to confirm equipment losses believe that Ukraine is capturing almost three times as many tanks and armored vehicles as the invading forces. But such data is difficult to confirm.
And, of course, Russia is also engaged in propaganda about the use of weapons captured from Ukraine.
To be sure, Ukraine fiercely resists an army launched with far greater firepower – with more than four times as many tanks in its armory.
Ukraine is fighting off an army that launched with far greater firepower
As part of the national resistance effort, from large industrial factories to small auto repair shops, many Ukrainian companies are adapting locations and refocusing employees to repair and reuse military equipment captured by Russian forces.
“In order to fight, the country must work, everyone in his place,” said Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. “Then the enemy will finally be killed by them [own] Weapons.’
Yesterday, state defense contractor Ukroboronprom claimed to have “mastered the repair of Russian trophy equipment,” with factories now working “around the clock” to bring anti-aircraft missile systems and multiple rocket launchers back to the battlefield. It also offers a $1 million reward for each aircraft it receives.
In cities like Kyiv and Zhytomyr, mounted machine guns were removed from damaged armored vehicles and handed over to auto repair shops to be converted into mobile weapons usable by Ukrainian infantry troops.
“We will rebuild the guns so that the barrels are aimed at the enemy’s side, not ours,” said Oleksandr Fedchecnko, a garage owner in the capital.
A special unit of the Territorial Defense Force is also repairing captured equipment at a Kyiv junkyard and painting the Ukrainian flag over Russian insignia.
Yuri Golodov, the unit’s deputy commander, claims to have been responsible for 24 Uragan rockets fired back at Russian forces. “Everything we take from the Russian army, we transfer to the armed forces of Ukraine,” he says.
Such “battlefield plunder” has long been a feature of wars. In both World War II and the Falklands War, British soldiers aimed captured heavy machine guns at the enemy. More recently, following the fall of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in 2014, Islamic State captured significant amounts of US-made gear.
Ben Barry, Senior Fellow in Land Warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: “The Ukrainian military seems to be celebrating its success in being able to seize armored vehicles and bring them back into service quickly.”
Yuri Butusov, a well-known Ukrainian military journalist, believes that the country is gaining more tanks than it is losing
Barry, a former British Army Brigadier, says such tactics are common when troops use the same equipment in combat. Although Russia under Putin has spent heavily modernizing its military, both sides often still rely on Soviet-era equipment. Captured artillery and military vehicles can also be cannibalized for spare parts and ammunition, relieving stress on severely strained supply chains.
Ukrainians also take great delight in sharing videos of farmers towing Russian tanks.
Last week, meanwhile, it emerged that retreating Russian forces from Kiev’s outskirts failed to destroy a Krasukha-4 command module capable of jamming drones and low-orbit satellites and tracking NATO planes. It was reportedly being flown to the United States for examination.