The Russian army has suffered tremendous tank losses during its invasion of Ukraine. To replace the losses it has been forced to field older, obsolete, tank models like T-72B, T-72A and T-62M(V). Some of these have been slightly upgraded with ERA and new thermal sights and most have at least seen limited refurbishment by the Russian tank depots. T-55 in a Russian frontline unit in Ukraine. Now Russia has sen at least a battalions worth of ancient T-55 tanks straight from their long term storage dumps to the Zaporozhye front in Ukraine. These are essentially 1940's technology medium tanks that should have no place in the modern battlefield. Seems that the Russian high command is seriously worried about the coming Ukrainian spring offensive and is using all means available to reinforce the units that are lacking main battle tanks. Here is my video about the T-55: Identification of the T-55: The older and smaller T-55 and T-62 have five roadwheels in their suspensions, the later mode
Turkish parliament ratified the Finnish NATO-membership yesterday. Before the process began, many pundits, myself included, expected Russia to try to interfere with the process. This article is also available add-free in my Patreon . The wide scale destruction of the Russian army in Ukraine is an obvious reason that military force hasn't been used to tie down Finland into a frozen conflict to prevent its ascension to the alliance. In the current situation an attack against Finland would severely risk Finland seizing a buffer zone from Russia as Russia is unable to mass the required forces to overmatch the 300 000 men Finnish war time army. But the Russian commitment in to Ukraine doesn't explain the silence in the political and unconventional fields. Russia still has its intelligence services and illegal operatives. It seems that the Russian assessment of Finland is quite realistic at the moment. The sentiment within Finland is strongly against Russia and the Finnish public vo