The Russians are pulling old equipment from their warehouses, but they can fight with huge stocks for years to come

An account on the X social network called Jompy published photos of Russian warehouses of equipment and also listed the number of pieces that were in the bases before the war and what they are now. Most of the MT-LB light tracked armored personnel carriers from the 1960s were taken out of storage. Of the 2,527, 922 remained in storage.

The rest are in Ukraine, but many have been destroyed. The Oryx server, which records Russian and Ukrainian losses based on photos, said that at least 722 transporters were destroyed. It also records 69 destroyed MT-LBVs modified to carry rapid-fire cannons and other weapons. 203 similar MT-LBVMs were also destroyed.

For BDM infantry light tracked armored fighting vehicles, their stock in warehouses has decreased from the pre-war 637 to 244. Of the 125 tracked BTR-50 transporters from the 1950s, half of them remain in warehouses, the more modern wheeled BTR 60, BTR-70 and BTR 80/82 are no longer none in stock. Of the 3,300 pre-war, 2,600 remain, which are apparently all deployed.

As expected, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to Nesweek’s inquiry about the losses and the use of old equipment.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Russia lost more than 3,000 armored fighting vehicles of all types last year alone. During the entire war, they lost 8,800 of them. But the IISS points out that Russia still has enough resources to conduct a ground operation.

Russia has sharply increased its weapons production, but often only modernizes older ones

The war in Ukraine

Last year alone, 1,180 to 1,280 tanks (albeit of scarier types) and 2,470 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers were returned to service. The numbers are higher than those reported by Ukrainian analyst Konstantin Mashovets, who spoke of Russia’s ability to produce or modernize 250 to 300 tanks and repair another 250 to 300 annually.

The IISS concluded that the stockpile of armored vehicles would allow Russia to wage war for at least another two to three years with its current capability to put the weapons into service. At the same time, the country is producing new weapons and ammunition.

Russia also emptied its artillery stores. They took from there about 60 percent of the howitzers, all 24 towed 152 mm 2A65 Msta gun howitzers and all 66 older 2A36 Giacints of the same caliber, but also two-thirds of the old 152 mm D-1 and D-20 howitzers and 80 percent of the 122 mm D- 30.

There are mainly howitzers from the Second World War and right after it, which are not capable of firing modern ammunition, the Institute for the Study of War pointed out.