Russian military resorts to school buses amid equipment crisis
The Russian Federation's military has been facing a prolonged shortage of equipment necessary to transport soldiers to the front lines. Until recently, scooters and motorcycles were employed for this purpose. However, according to Forbes, the military has now turned to using a school bus.
Russian occupying forces in Ukraine, struggling with a shortage of military equipment, are increasingly relying on civilian vehicles. These include Chinese golf carts, Belarusian motorcycles, Lada cars, and school buses, with the latter drawing attention from Forbes. The school bus was spotted during battles in the Donetsk region.
Civilian vehicles on the front
Ukrainian soldiers observed an unusual piece of equipment among the Russian armed forces at the front: a yellow school bus in the Donetsk region. The Russians used it to transport soldiers during the fighting. However, during its journey on the front line, the vehicle either broke down or got stuck in soft ground and subsequently became a target for a kamikaze drone.
"The most recent addition to this arsenal of ex-civilian vehicles, many of them up-armored with anti-drone cages, might be the most comical," writes Forbes about the school bus on the front. Experts note that such vehicles are highly ineffective on the front lines, as they have significantly worse armor than combat vehicles. "Civilian vehicles are better than walking but will obviously not provide any protection or fire support," the article states.
The bus seen in the recording is likely a 20-seater KAvZ-397620, built on the GAZ-33074 chassis. Its curb weight is approximately 11,000 lbs, and its maximum speed is 56 mph. The vehicle is powered by a ZMZ-513.10 engine with 125 horsepower. Production of this bus began in 1989.
Russian equipment losses
The Ukrainian agency Unian has calculated Russian losses since the start of the war. Since the beginning of the full-scale conflict, Russia has lost 17,000 units of military equipment. The Russian defense industry, hindered by sanctions, is unable to keep up with the production of new equipment, forcing the Kremlin to revert to using vehicles from the Cold War era and, as revealed by recordings and photos from the front, civilian vehicles of negligible usefulness in combat.
