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Here's a story from someone who actually did buy some military vehicles for the guys in the South-East: http://vk.com/juchkovsky?w=wall151630709_7596%2Fall htt

Here's a story from someone who actually did buy some military vehicles for the guys in the South-East: http://vk.com/juchkovsky?w=wall151630709_7596%2Fall http://vk.com/juchkovsky?w=wall151630709_7596%2Fall He says he bought two BRDMs (like the one in the article) for ~$40,000 each, and a BTR-80 (a relatively new fighting vehicle) for ~80,000. The difference is that the vehicles are fresh (new from old stock/conservation) and they "come with all the accessories, if you know what I mean" (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more). Maybe the guys from the South-East really did buy their stuff at the surplus store, like Putin said. According to the same source, a tank (with all accessories included?) would cost ~$200,000.

trhway 12y ago
>Maybe the guys from the South-East really did buy their stuff at the surplus store, like Putin said. it is surplus store not available for others :) The guy in the original article bought a vehicle which just a step from "a 7-ton piece of junk" - at least it was playing that role for many years at the military base what it was bought from. The hardware in your post's link came from a kind of "limited access surplus store" which was used at the beginning. Currently a lot of the rebels' hardware, including armored vehicles and tanks, are in very good condition and of pretty good "model year" :) - for example among the rebels' main battle tanks are pretty modern, latest version of T-72 (still, in addition to the newest T-90, used by Russia (and only by Russia, ie. it hasn't been exported) ) with all the bells and whistles (navigation/targeting hardware, reactive armor, active protection system, etc...) Note: of course not all the hardware is that good and new. Two other main sources of the hardware are captured (and in many cases i suspect actually bought while reported as captured as many people in Ukrainian army and government are reluctant, to say the least, to fight the rebels or are just corrupt - also check out the stories about "lost" and "prepared for sale to unknown buyer" tanks at Kharkov tank factory (cool photos just to get a scale of possibilities http://thehiat.blogspot.com/2012/06/kharkov-armoured-repair-factory.html http://thehiat.blogspot.com/2012/06/kharkov-armoured-repair-... ) :) hardware of Ukrainian army in Donetsk/Lugansk region and the hardware the Ukraine left in Crimea which was trafficked into Donetsk/Lugansk.
- PerfectDlite 12y ago
  Care to explain how Ukrainian army can sold vehicles and weapons which were present only in Russian army?
  - madaxe_again 12y ago
    Belarus != Ukraine.
  - tobiasu 12y ago
    Given that Russia, Belarus and Ukraine had a joint arms industry until a few months ago, it's not surprising. Ukraine is a large exporter of tanks, mainly to 3rd world countries - they have tanks built for export that were not available to the army until now. These export vehicles showed up over the last weeks, because the army was clearly running out off their preferred T-64, etc.
  - trhway 12y ago
    as i said, the most recent version of T-72 visible on some photos from Donetsk/Luhansk obviously came from the "exclusive surplus store" in Russia. Some, far from the all though, of the hardware from the "store" was even delivered with the Russian servicemen included :)
  - army 12y ago
    I think you're wasting your time trying to convince people who don't want to see what's right in front of their nose. It's not remotely plausible that events in Crimea and Donbass could have transpired without a great deal of direct and indirect support from the Russian authorities. It's entirely obvious by now that there are large numbers of Russian troops and military vehicles operating in Eastern Ukraine. They were fighting directly with Ukrainian forces before the ceasefire and probably still are now to a lesser extent. The other irregular forces have clearly been helped directly by Russia allowing them to operate freely on Russian territory, with manpower and training from the Russian military, and food, hardware and supplies from Russian military stocks. Putin eventually admitted after the fact that the little green men in Crimea were Russian soldiers. Only fools would believe any claims that they're not deeply involved in what's gone on in Donbass and other parts of eastern Ukraine.
army 12y ago
You do realise that Putin openly admitted that Russian troops were involved in the Crimea takeover? The "bought their uniforms in a store" explanation of the little green men wasn't remotely believable even at the time for many reasons, but even the Kremlin isn't trying to sell that any more.

trhway 12y ago

>Maybe the guys from the South-East really did buy their stuff at the surplus store, like Putin said. it is surplus store not available for others :) The guy in the original article bought a vehicle which just a step from "a 7-ton piece of junk" - at least it was playing that role for many years at the military base what it was bought from. The hardware in your post's link came from a kind of "limited access surplus store" which was used at the beginning. Currently a lot of the rebels' hardware, including armored vehicles and tanks, are in very good condition and of pretty good "model year" :) - for example among the rebels' main battle tanks are pretty modern, latest version of T-72 (still, in addition to the newest T-90, used by Russia (and only by Russia, ie. it hasn't been exported) ) with all the bells and whistles (navigation/targeting hardware, reactive armor, active protection system, etc...) Note: of course not all the hardware is that good and new. Two other main sources of the hardware are captured (and in many cases i suspect actually bought while reported as captured as many people in Ukrainian army and government are reluctant, to say the least, to fight the rebels or are just corrupt - also check out the stories about "lost" and "prepared for sale to unknown buyer" tanks at Kharkov tank factory (cool photos just to get a scale of possibilities http://thehiat.blogspot.com/2012/06/kharkov-armoured-repair-factory.html http://thehiat.blogspot.com/2012/06/kharkov-armoured-repair-... ) :) hardware of Ukrainian army in Donetsk/Lugansk region and the hardware the Ukraine left in Crimea which was trafficked into Donetsk/Lugansk.

PerfectDlite 12y ago
Care to explain how Ukrainian army can sold vehicles and weapons which were present only in Russian army?
- madaxe_again 12y ago
  Belarus != Ukraine.
- tobiasu 12y ago
  Given that Russia, Belarus and Ukraine had a joint arms industry until a few months ago, it's not surprising. Ukraine is a large exporter of tanks, mainly to 3rd world countries - they have tanks built for export that were not available to the army until now. These export vehicles showed up over the last weeks, because the army was clearly running out off their preferred T-64, etc.
- trhway 12y ago
  as i said, the most recent version of T-72 visible on some photos from Donetsk/Luhansk obviously came from the "exclusive surplus store" in Russia. Some, far from the all though, of the hardware from the "store" was even delivered with the Russian servicemen included :)
- army 12y ago
  I think you're wasting your time trying to convince people who don't want to see what's right in front of their nose. It's not remotely plausible that events in Crimea and Donbass could have transpired without a great deal of direct and indirect support from the Russian authorities. It's entirely obvious by now that there are large numbers of Russian troops and military vehicles operating in Eastern Ukraine. They were fighting directly with Ukrainian forces before the ceasefire and probably still are now to a lesser extent. The other irregular forces have clearly been helped directly by Russia allowing them to operate freely on Russian territory, with manpower and training from the Russian military, and food, hardware and supplies from Russian military stocks. Putin eventually admitted after the fact that the little green men in Crimea were Russian soldiers. Only fools would believe any claims that they're not deeply involved in what's gone on in Donbass and other parts of eastern Ukraine.

army 12y ago

You do realise that Putin openly admitted that Russian troops were involved in the Crimea takeover? The "bought their uniforms in a store" explanation of the little green men wasn't remotely believable even at the time for many reasons, but even the Kremlin isn't trying to sell that any more.