Send the T-62 out ahead of the newer stuff to soak up the missiles.
Sort of like when the Soviets when they would send out convicts and malcontents to clear out a path in the minefields
Dude, the newer stuff, the T-90s, have already soaked up a LOT of missiles.
If that had been their plan, they would have done it long before now. They expected the T-90 P3 to waltz through Ukrainian lines. Instead the Russians have lost an estimated half of the T-90s that they committed to the initial invasion.
Worse, reports from inside Russia say that, while they have about 600 T-90s in their arsenal, virtually all of the capable ones have been committed to the Ukraine invasion already... which means that the Russians may actually have only about 100 T-90s in their arsenal.
The rest of their T-90s, and a good number of their T-80s and T-72s, aren't serviceable because Russian corruption has siphoned off the money that was supposed to their maintenance, their "reactive armor" isn't really reactive anymore because local commanders have sold off much of it on the black market to line their own pockets, and they can't fix/replace/upgrade the electronics.
All of that is the reason why they're pulling the T-62s out of the barn... they HAVE to, and they're the only tanks that they can get up and running because they don't have sophisticated electronics or reactive defensive armor, the engines are dead simple, just a whole slew of "this is our only option, so let's go with it" reasons.
As for the T-14 Armata... there are supposedly 8 of those in existence, and apparently 4 of them can't move because they're not complete. The other four are so prone to malfunctions that the Russians don't dare send them to Ukraine.
And the Russians apparently can't build any more T-14s because of the international sanctions cutting off the electronics stream.
