Russia half emptied the largest warehouse of Soviet armored vehicles because of the war in Ukraine: media revealed details

The aggressor country Russia has emptied its largest warehouse of mothballed Soviet armored vehicles by more than 40 percent during its full-scale war against Ukraine. Old tanks and armored personnel carriers were removed from storage at the famous Vagzhanovo (277th) base in Buryatia.

It is located near Ulan-Ude and occupies about 13 square kilometers, which is much larger than the areas of two dozen other known bases for storing military equipment in the Russian Federation. This was reported by The Moscow Times, an independent English- and Russian-language online newspaper, citing fresh satellite images from Google Earth (to see it, scroll to the end of the news).

It is noted that the investigators collected information about the location of the bases of mothballed military equipment from open sources - blogs of photographers, travelers and media publications.

Thus, it was found that five months before the full-scale invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine - in September 2021 - in "Vagzhanovo" under the open sky stood about 3,840 units of armored vehicles.

Already after eight months of war - in November 2022 - about 2,600 armored vehicles remained on the base, and by May 2023 - 2,270.

"Thus, during this time, 1,570 or 40.8% of armored vehicles were removed from the base. And most of it (32%) left after the announcement of mobilization at the end of 2022," the journalists calculated.

They drew attention to the instructions of the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to which there are four categories of preservation of military equipment. The first and most valuable equipment is stored in special ventilated and heated rooms, the second - in unheated hangars. The third category of preservation is storage under tents, and the fourth - in the open air, as in Buryatia.

"Where there are tent shelters - the equipment should be at least on the move. Under the open sky - what is not to be pitied," the publication quoted military expert Pavel Luzin as saying.

It was established that old Soviet equipment was stored in "Vagzhanovo" mainly in the open air. Images from November 2022 showed that about half of the armored vehicles were without turrets or had other traces of damage visible even from a satellite. Similar signs were observed in about half of the vehicles remaining at the base by May 2023.

"There are also 10 hangars on the territory of the base, which, according to The Moscow Times calculations, can accommodate up to 400 armored vehicles. In the social networks of former Vagzhanovo servicemen, we found several large pictures of tanks stored there. The military experts interviewed identified them as T-62s, which were produced in the USSR from 1962 to 1975," the journalists stated.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, Russian occupation forces in the war against Ukraine began using old tanks as self-propelled bombs. Soviet T-54/55 they stuffed with TNT and sent towards Ukrainian positions.

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