They don’t have much of their new equipment to send. This statement implies that even though they have only few new equipments to send but they don’t want to lose those equipments for non-combat reasons down to their logistical corruption and incompetence. Russian government is with the mind of refusing to let the new equipments fall into the hands of Ukraine forces.
A situation where intact T-14s fell into Ukraine hands merely because Russia soldiers abandoned them because they ran out of fuel will spell a doom for the Russians.
Let’s at the same time bear in mind that the words “old” and “new” are pretty relative here. What you call ‘old’ might not be old according to public opinion. If the alleged old equipments aren’t working fine and accordingly, Russia government would not send them in.
Also, Russia can only send in old equipments because they can’t REALLY afford what they could have termed new equipments. Russian high-tech equipment often does not work reliably or often. For example, Russia has its own GPS satellite system (GLONASS.) Satellites appear to work well.
But the receivers that were designed for jets have processors that are too slow to update quickly enough to show their position accurately. So most fighters shot down in the Ukraine and Syria has old consumer Magellan handheld GPS units screwed, taped, or bolted to the dash.
A lack of qualified maintenance technicians and very little time spent training amplify the situation. On the other hand, the Ukrainians were given weapons that were purposefully selected because they addressed weak points in the Russian military.
Their tanks, for example are ALL extremely vulnerable to top missile strikes. Javelins are having a 1.2:1 kill ration regardless of the tank model. Russian tankers are terrified and are welding all sorts of “chicken coops” and “rat cages” over their turrets to try to protect themselves (it doesn’t help.) Lots of APCs and fighting vehicles are being taken out with cheap Polish RPG-76 grenades.
Endemic corruption that is all over Russia military and Security services is one of the reasons they keep sending old weapons to Ukraine.
No fuel, no spare parts, low ammunition stocks, food that expired years ago, no winter clothing ect, ect has sapped the will of many of the troops. Those fuel stocks, food stocks, ammunition stocks, winter clothing were all on paper somewhere in the system but somehow aren’t on the battlefield.
While this isn’t widely reported, but the vast majority of the division of the FSB that was in charge of causing unrest in Ukraine has been sacked. The top two Generals are confirmed under house arrest.
While the rest is unconfirmed, over the last decade plus, billions of dollars have flowed through this State Security division to distribute as cash bribes to Ukrainian military leaders and politicians so that they would surrender if and when Russia invaded.
Meanwhile Ukrainians are NOT surrendering and the reporting is that these top two Generals pocketed the money and trickled some down to the lower levels to keep everyone happy.
