The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been going on for more than a year. As the military forces of both sides continue to escalate, Western countries have supplied Ukraine with a large number of anti-tank weapons, which seriously affects the offensive speed of the Russian army and causes serious wear and tear on their tank vehicles. Against this background, the Russian army, which lacked tanks, was forced to adopt the old method, reactivating a batch of T-54 tanks from the 1295th Central Tank Repair and Storage Base in Arsenyev in the Russian Far East and returning them to the battlefield.
These T-54 tanks were produced in the forties and fifties of the last century and have a history of about 70 years. According to sources, between June and November last year, the tank repair base transported at least 191 T-62 main battle tanks to the front line. The T-54 medium tank, a Soviet derivative of the T-44, produced 50,000 units, accounting for one-third of the number of tanks after World War II. However, due to the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia, the speed of production of tanks in the Russian army was seriously affected.
Ukraine received a lot of military aid from the West, including artillery shells, Leopard-1, Leopard-2 main battle tanks, and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. This makes the morale of the Armed Forces of Ukraine high, especially in Europe the return of recruits who have received various trainings, and their main offensive is about to begin. In contrast, Russia faces a large loss of weapons and equipment in active service. In response to Ukraine's massive counteroffensive, Russia must find alternatives to the shortage of weapons and equipment for front-line troops.
Russian military-industrial complex enterprises are currently working on tanks, doubling production capacity last year and supplying the Russian army with more than 1,000 tanks of different models. However, due to the sanctions, tank production in Ukraine has been seriously affected. Russia had to take measures to unblock old tanks and solve the shortage of weapons and equipment for front-line troops as quickly as possible. Despite the difficulties, Russia has done its best to produce tanks, and it expects to produce 1,500 tanks this year.