A Lot More Russian Troops Are Attacking In Compact Cars, Vans And Golf Carts

Forbes

24-03-2025

A drone strike on an assault Lada.
Ukrainian defense ministry capture.
Armored trucks and civilian vehicles such as vans, compact cars and all-terrain vehicles—that is, golf carts—now account for around 70 percent of Russian losses, according to one recent survey.
But the growing proportion of civilian-style vehicles in the wreckage of Russia's 37-month wider war on Ukraine doesn't mean there are fewer Russian tanks and fighting vehicles—the traditional mounts for mechanized troops—along the 700-mile front line.
No, there are actually more destroyed and abandoned tanks and fighting vehicles dotting the line of contact today than there were a year ago, even as these purpose-made armored vehicles represent a smaller proportion of Russian losses.
The growing abundance of vehicles of all sorts—unarmored and armored—speaks to the intensity of the overlapping Russian offensives that have kicked off along multiple sectors in eastern Ukraine and western Russia in the last 18 months.
Until recently, the Russians were attacking almost everywhere, in large numbers, in whatever vehicles they could source from official or unofficial channels.
But Russian losses rose in proportion to Russian assaults, and stocks of traditional tanks and infantry fighting vehicles ran low, compelling regiments and brigades to switch to golf carts, Lada compact cars and Bukhanka vans in order to lend mobility to increasingly frequent attacks.
The numbers tell the story. As illustrated by analyst Chris Jones, armored tanks and fighting vehicles accounted for around half of the roughly 375 vehicles Russia lost in February 2024.
A year later this February, Russia lost around 1,100 vehicles—and 250 were tanks and fighting vehicles. Fully half of Russian losses that month were civilian vehicles or armored trucks. But the half that included tanks and fighting vehicles still represented a raw increase in the number of these vehicles appearing along the front line.
A Russian soldier on horseback.
VIA ANTON GERASHCHENKO
Russian industry builds maybe 200 new BMP-3 fighting vehicles and 90 new T-90M tanks annually as well as a few hundred other new armored vehicles, including BTR-82 wheeled fighting vehicles.
Since Russian mechanized regiments have been losing armored vehicles at an annualized rate of 6,000 a year, or 500 a month—largely to Ukrainian mines, artillery and drones—there's a shortfall.
Growing desperate for battlefield mobility as early as 2022, the Russians opened up vast storage bases that once sheltered tens of thousand of obsolete Cold War vehicles.
But even these old vehicles couldn't fully equip front-line regiments, given the accelerating pace of the regiments' operations. Open-source analyst Jompy explained it best in January, taking BTR wheeled fighting vehicles as a case study. 'It looks like Russia still has overall 2,358 stored BTR-60/70/80s out of the 3,673 it had in storage before the war,' Jompy wrote.
Looks can be deceiving. 'In reality, most of the vehicles are older BTR-60s and -70s, and in poor condition' and all but impossible to reactivate, Jompy explained.
Civilian-style vehicles were the last resort. But it was a last resort that became normal. 'I guess this Lada storming is the norm now?' open-source analyst Moklasen mused as they scrutinized yet another video feed from a Ukrainian drone unit blowing up Russian compact cars attacking Ukrainian positions in late January.
Two months later, the norm is entrenched. So many Russians are attacking in so many unarmored civilian vehicles that these vehicles now account for more than two-thirds of losses.
But there are still plenty of tanks and fighting vehicles in the mix. More and more, in fact.