Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has removed from storage more than 40% of old Soviet tanks and armored personnel carriers at the largest known base of preserved military equipment "Vagzhanovo" in Buryatia.
This is reported by The Moscow Times.
"Vagzhanovo" is located near Ulan-Ude and occupies about 13 square kilometers, which is much larger than the area of two dozen other known military equipment storage bases in Russia.
Five months before the full-scale war in Ukraine, in September 2021, about 3 840 units of armored vehicles were stored in the open at Vagzhanovo, The Moscow Times calculated based on Google Earth images. After eight months of the war — in November 2022 — about 2 600 armored vehicles remained at the base, and by May 2023 — about 2 270. Thus, during this time, 1 570 or 40.8% of armored vehicles were removed from the base. Moreover, most of it (32%) left after the announcement of mobilization at the end of 2022.
- In 2023, Russia increased targeted defense spending to a third of all government spending. In the first half of 2023, Russia spent a total of $119.76 billion, of which 5.59 trillion rubles ($44.72 billion) were allocated to defense, or 37% of all expenditures during this period.