Russian army resorts to school buses amidst equipment crisis
The Russian Federation's military has faced a persistent shortage of equipment to transport soldiers to the front lines. Until recently, scooters and motorcycles were used for this purpose, but now, according to Forbes, the military has turned to using a school bus.
Russian occupying forces in Ukraine, grappling with a shortage of military equipment, are increasingly using civilian vehicles. These include Chinese golf carts, Belarusian motorcycles, Lada cars, and school buses, with the latter gaining attention from Forbes. The vehicle was seen during battles in the Donetsk region.
Civilian vehicles on the front
Ukrainian soldiers noticed 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 broke down or became stuck in soft ground, subsequently becoming a target for a kamikaze drone.
"The most recent addition to this arsenal of ex-civilian vehicles, many of them up-armoured with anti-drone cages, might be the most comical," writes Forbes about the school bus at the front. Experts highlight that such vehicles are extremely ineffective on the front lines due to having far inferior armour compared to 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 footage is most likely a 20-seater KAvZ-397620 built on the GAZ-33074 chassis. Its curb weight is approximately 5,000 kg, and it can reach a maximum speed of 90 km/h. 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 calculates 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 defence industry, under sanctions, is unable to keep up with the production of new equipment. This has forced the Kremlin to turn to vehicles from the Cold War era and, as shown in recordings and photos from the front, civilian vehicles of negligible usefulness during combat.
