Russia will produce and modernize over 1,600 tanks over the next three year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday during an interview with Pavel Zarubin, a Russian journalist for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program.
"The arsonists plan to send 420, or 440 tanks to Ukraine, everything is the same as for ammunition," Putin said.
"The total number of tanks of the Russian army will be three times the number of tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Even more than three times," he added. "I'm not talking about aviation. There is a difference of 10 orders of magnitude."
Putin also mentioned that Russia is aware of the West's plans on supplying Ukraine with weapons and ammunition. Russia claims that the United States is currently producing 14,000-15,000 shells every month. They believe that the US will be producing up to 75,000 shells by 2025.
"I think that if the United States is going to go from 15,000 shells this year to 42,000 next year, then for other countries it will be even more difficult. There are still their own rules. Each country has its own plans for the development of armed forces and the so-called national economy, infrastructure, education and healthcare.
"The Russian Armed Forces spend much more. I don't want to assess the rationality of decision-making at different levels of military command, but now, as you know, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are even forced to introduce certain limits.
"At the same time, Russian production, the military-industrial complex of Russia is developing at a very fast pace, in a way that many didn't expect. Over the same period of time, Russian industry will produce three times more ammunition, which we are talking about, even more than three times more."
Russian use of old Soviet tanks
The UK Defense Ministry assessed in early March that the Russian military has continued to rely on 60-year-old Soviet tanks to replace armor losses.
"Since summer 2022, approximately 800 T-62s have been taken from storage and some have received upgraded sighting systems which will highly likely improve their effectiveness at night," the UK Defense Ministry said.
The tank units within the Russian military had been provided with old T-62 main battle tanks, including units in the 1st Guards Tank Army, which the UK described as supposedly being "Russia's premier tank force."