Putin Forced to Send 70-year-old Tanks From Russian Museums Into Ukraine Due to Ongoing Weapons Shortage
May 8 2023, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
Vladimir Putin was recently forced to send 70-year-old tanks previously kept on display inside Russian museums into Ukraine to make up for his military’s ongoing weapons shortage, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come after Russia is estimated to have lost more than 3,700 tanks in the past 14 months of fighting against Ukraine, the 70-year-old Russian leader reportedly ordered several Soviet-era T-55 tanks to be recommissioned and sent to the frontlines of battle.
According to Daily Star, the T-55 tanks being taken from Russian museums and sent into Ukraine were first constructed in 1948 shortly after the end of World War II.
"The Soviets never threw anything away," historian John Delaney told CNN this week after footage of the 70-year-old tanks entering Ukraine emerged online.
"There’s probably a significant number of them sitting in sheds waiting to be reconfigured."
Also surprising are reports that, according to military experts, the usage of the Soviet-era tanks could “actually prove useful” to Putin as Moscow struggles to produce new tanks due to Western sanctions.
"They are producing some new tanks — they are still producing T-90s — but, at the scale required, they need more equipment than they can produce so they’re relying on older and older tanks to compensate,” Robert Lee, a former U.S. Marine now working with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNN.
Although Lee admitted that the T-55s could be effective if used in "static defensive positions,” he also confirmed the they would “lose every time” if placed in a one-on-one battle against the modern tanks on Ukraine’s side.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the news of the 70-year-old Soviet-era tanks being recommissioned to fight in Ukraine came shortly after it was revealed Putin’s troops were recently forced to construct “Frankenstein tanks” due to the devastating weapons shortage.
According to reports from Ukraine intelligence, Russian troops were caught “cobbling together” parts of destroyed armored vehicles to create makeshift combat vehicles in March and April.
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One Russian battalion was allegedly caught taking the turrets from naval patrol boats to “crudely weld” onto the superstructures of already damaged tanks and similar armored vehicles.
Elsewhere, Putin’s soldiers were reportedly seen rushing onto the frontlines of the war with nothing but firearms and shovels due to the weapons shortage.
"In late February 2023, Russian mobilized reservists described being ordered to assault a Ukrainian concrete strong point armed with only ‘firearms and shovels,’” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported at the time.
