Russia taps Soviet-era stockpiles as armored-vehicle supply dwindles
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. KYIV—When the director of Russia’s largest film studio met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin last month, he made sure to highlight how he had supported the war effort—by handing over dozens of tanks and armored vehicles dating back to the 1950s. The company, Mosfilm, had used armored vehicles from the Soviet era as props for decades.
Now, with the Ukraine war chewing through stockpiles, Mosfilm is turning them over. “I was told they were needed, so I reached out to the Defense Ministry," Karen Shakhnazarov, Mosfilm’s director general, told Putin. The donation of around 50 vehicles was a drop in the bucket for Russia’s military—but an indication of how deep the deficit of armor has become for one of the world’s most powerful armies.
Two-and-a-half years of intense warfare along a 600-mile front has taken its toll, while sanctions have cut off access to Western parts. Russia has lost more than 11,000 armored combat vehicles in the war, including some 3,600 tanks, according to the estimates of Western officials and analysts—equivalent to almost 15 years of Russian tank production at prewar levels. Analysts say Russia has around 2,600 tanks left in reserve.
New tank deliveries to the front are largely older models plucked from storage, which depletes stockpiles and degrades the overall quality of Russia’s force. The vehicles have “to be sent for refurbishment, then for maintenance and finally, prepared for combat duty," said a senior Ukrainian intelligence official. “All of this takes time." Russia has shown an ability throughout the war to adapt to fierce resistance from Ukraine and pressure from Western sanctions, and it is doing so again now to preserve its supplies of armored
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