The Kremlin continues to implement measures to gradually prepare the Russian military-industrial base for a protracted war against Ukraine, while avoiding wider economic mobilization. However, these attempts are incompatible with the scale of the war that the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine, and with the scale of losses of Russian military equipment.. This is stated in the ISW report..

In particular, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the Supervisory Board of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives on February 9 and instructed the agency to support the subjects of the federation in developing the production of unmanned aerial systems.

On February 4, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that Russian military manufacturers intend to expand the supply of reconnaissance and attack drones to support operations against Ukraine..

It was also reported that the Russian Federation and Iran plan to build a plant for the production of drones in Russia " Iran denies this information.

Medvedev visited a tank plant in the Omsk region on February 9 and said that Russia needs to increase the production of various types of weapons, including modern tanks, in response to Western military assistance to Ukraine.

Monitoring group Oryx reported that Russian troops lost 1,012 tanks in Ukraine, 546 tanks were captured by Ukrainian forces.

According to Oryx, these cumulative losses are about half of the tanks that Russian forces brought into Ukraine at the start of the invasion.. One and a half thousand tanks are enough to equip more than 15 tank regiments, brigades or about 150 battalion tactical groups.

The Russian military needs to quickly replace these tank losses in order to maintain the ability to wage large-scale mobile warfare ahead of a possible increase in the pace of offensive operations in eastern Ukraine..

Medvedev probably framed his calls for increased production as a response to Western military aid to Kyiv to cover up the fact that significant losses of military equipment necessitated an increase in production..

“The Kremlin’s efforts to gradually prepare the Russian defense-industrial base for a protracted war while avoiding wider economic mobilization remain inconsistent with the scale of the war being waged by the Russian military against Ukraine and the scale of losses of Russian military equipment,” analysts said..

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Earlier, ISW reported that Russian officials continue to propose measures to prepare the Russian military industry for a protracted war against Ukraine, and also allegedly create additional conditions for evading sanctions..