Video: Russia has begun returning tanks to rear storage bases, according to Western intelligence sources

Russian troops have begun returning tanks to rear-area equipment storage bases, which they had previously largely depleted to replenish their arsenals. According to OSSI observers, the Russians had previously been removing Soviet armored vehicles from these locations, but now the opposite trend has been observed.

 

Since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has been rapidly depleting its Soviet-era stockpiles of armored vehicles in warehouses, but recently the situation has reversed. Now, the newest tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are not heading to the front lines but to storage bases. This is reported by Covert Cabal, an open-source analyst specializing in the analysis of satellite imagery of Russian military bases.

According to the expert, the changes are particularly noticeable at the 22nd Central Storage Base in the town of Buy, Kostroma Oblast, several hundred kilometers north of Moscow. A satellite image from October 4 revealed dozens of armored vehicles, even though the main storage area had previously been empty.

“We suddenly noticed a sharp reversal of this trend at one of the depots,” the author notes.

According to his data, at the start of the full-scale war, the base had over 760 tanks, but their number later dropped to 102. All the remaining vehicles were old and were undergoing maintenance. Now the depot is filling up again—with modern equipment.

In particular, the analyst identified 57 T-90M tanks in the images, which had not previously been present at the base. He estimates the confidence in this identification to be approximately 90% due to the limited resolution of the satellite images. In addition, a significant number of BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, BMP-3M infantry fighting vehicles, and trucks have appeared there.

The author also speculates that Russia may be centralizing the storage of military equipment by evacuating some of its bases in the west of the country, which are within range of Ukrainian drones.

Covert Cabal believes the main reason for the accumulation of the latest vehicles is the Russian army’s de facto refusal to use them in the war against Ukraine due to the proliferation of drones on the battlefield. Due to the threat they pose, tanks have become less effective, and the use of the most advanced models without adequate protection could lead to significant losses.

In his view, Russia continues to produce armored vehicles and stockpile them while awaiting solutions that will allow for more effective countermeasures against drones.

Source: Covert Cabal

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