(FiveNation.com)- A video purportedly showing a Ukrainian farmer using a tractor to tow away a Russian tank appeared on Telegram last week. According to a Ukrainian Telegram channel, Ukrainian farmers “continue to harvest Russian machinery.”
Over the last few months, Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, has shared a series of videos showing Ukrainian farmers hauling away Russian tanks with their tractors, including one that appeared to have been destroyed in a missile strike.
Ukrainian farmers captured two Russian MT-LB. 8/https://t.co/ZDda5SqkXH pic.twitter.com/8JfbzSNBm6
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 14, 2022
While the videos don’t necessarily mean that Ukrainian farmers are taking an active role in the ongoing conflict, it does reveal that Russian forces have lost a significant number of tanks and armored vehicles.
Last month, a US Defense official estimated that since the conflict began, Russia has lost nearly one thousand tanks, though others have suggested the estimate may be even higher.
Many of the tanks were likely destroyed by Ukrainian missiles. Others, however, were likely abandoned in central Ukraine after Russian forces were redeployed into the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine.
The Defense official also told reporters that, as of last month, Russia has lost dozens of aircraft, at least 50 helicopters, and over 350 pieces of artillery. Those losses have grown even higher a month later.
But even with the significant losses, the official told reporters that Russia still has a “significant amount” of military capability left at its disposal.
It was reported earlier this month that the loss of tanks has grown so significant that the Kremlin ordered the old, Soviet-era tanks pulled out of storage.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Ukraine has planned a touring exhibition across Europe featuring destroyed Russian military vehicles as a way to keep public attention focused on the conflict.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told a Polish outlet that its planned exhibition will begin in Warsaw before traveling to Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon. Reznikov said Ukraine will ensure that the only Russian tanks moving across Europe are the ones that are scrap.
