Vladimir Putin’s captured T-72 tanks will be put on display in five countries, in a stinging blow to the Russian president as his military losses mount in the Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry announced Friday that it will hand over Russian military equipment to museums in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, and the Netherlands, in the hopes that the displays will “document the consequences of russian aggression against Ukraine” in the war launched by Putin in February 2022.
More than four years into the war, Russia has lost a vast amount of military equipment, including more than 12,000 tanks, according to figures from Ukraine’s military, which cannot be independently verified. Independent publication The Insider reported that the conflict has resulted in the largest depletion of Russia’s military equipment in 80 years.
In a rare display of public weakness, Putin himself was forced to drastically scale back his annual military parade in May over intensifying battlefield challenges in Ukraine. The Russian president traditionally uses the day of national celebration to show off his nation’s military power, but not a single tank rolled through Moscow’s Red Square this year.
“Our tanks are busy right now,” Russian lawmaker Yevgeny Popov told BBC News at the time. “They are fighting. We need them more on the battlefield than on Red Square.”
Now, some Russian tanks will instead be drawing crowds in museums belonging to countries that have backed Kyiv.
“The enemy equipment is no longer combat-capable, contains no explosive components, and can be displayed to museum visitors abroad,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. “Such exhibitions abroad will help communicate objective information about Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for independence and present the international community with tangible evidence of the war.”
The displays will serve as another humiliating blow for Putin at a time when the Russian leader is grappling with mounting pressure at home and abroad.
Russia is battling a deepening fuel crisis as Ukrainian drones hammer its refineries, pipelines and tankers, while Putin has suffered his sharpest drop in approval ratings since launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
And as the war grinds on with Putin refusing to entertain even a ceasefire, his once-warm relationship with President Donald Trump appears to be turning increasingly frosty. The U.S. president has instead been warming to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding to the growing list of headaches confronting the Kremlin leader.
