Thumpalumpacus
Major
Not to my knowledge, no. That said, simply the act of allowing Russian troops to launch from Belorusian land is itself an act of war, legally speaking.
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The Feb 2022 invasion towards Kyiv came from Belarus. Did any Belorussian units take part?
Given the 62 needs a crew of four vs. three on the later autoloader types - one wonders if the RF has the manpower to fully crew them up? Running them short-crewed might work for defensive situations but in most other respects we're talking quite an old design firing soviet legacy ammunition (115mm rounds only really used by the Rapira AT gun and T-62) manned by reserve crews...... what's the worst that can happen?
*I'm not an AFV expert but even I can foresee some hiccups.
It may also be that T-62 has been the training tank for reservists over time so maybe there are a lot of people familiar with them.Russia reportedly has plenty of T-62 crews (for some reason). Whether that's because it has a surplus of trained tank crews, or has been training new crews on T-62s I'm not sure. A couple of different posters on Twitter and some military technical forums have stated in the last month or so that Russia still has more trained tankers than it has tanks to crew.
As for the ammunition situation. There's Soviet-era stocks and modern production as well. From what I could find Russia restarted 115mm ammunition production (for HE-Frag) sometime in the mid 1990s, and was still producing it as late as the end of 2005. There's also a bunch of other countries friendly to Russia that produce 115mm ammunition - half of central Asia, Egypt, Iraq, Libya. No idea on numbers, but if they're reactivating 600 tanks (as seems to be the rumour) then they're going to want a lot of ammo - typical load out seems to by about 30-32 HE shell per tank.
Interesting bit of info:
9 October 2022 Kyrgyzstan cancels joint military exercises with Russia and Belarus
Kyrgyzstan's defence ministry has decided to abruptly cancel joint military exercises with Russia, Belarus and other former Soviet Union members.
The exercises, named "Unbreakable Brotherhood" were due to be held in Kyrgyzstan this month.
Some 7,000 troops were meant to gather under the banner of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a six-member military alliance led by Russia.
Hooray for Kyrgyzstan!
I'm not sure I'm cheering about this. Is this Kyrgyzstan standing up to The Man or did Putin tell them to cancel because Russia lacked resources to play?
It may be an indicator that Kyrgyzstan is distancing itself from Moscow….but it might not. Regardless, it means Putin can now throw the troops assigned for the exercise into the Ukraine meat grinder.
I'm not sure I'm cheering about this. Is this Kyrgyzstan standing up to The Man or did Putin tell them to cancel because Russia lacked resources to play?
It may be an indicator that Kyrgyzstan is distancing itself from Moscow….but it might not. Regardless, it means Putin can now throw the troops assigned for the exercise into the Ukraine meat grinder.
Kazakhstan is now firmly betting its future and security on China, and is moving away from Moscow. With Kazakhstan between it and Russia, Kyrgyzstan also will be looking to China for security and stability.It may be an indicator that Kyrgyzstan is distancing itself from Moscow….but it might not.
I wonder if those seven thousand troops ever existed. Perhaps Russia was close to canceling the move itself.I don't disagree with any of the comments about the 'Stans or about Moscow losing influence. That's a strategic topic and is definitely worth tracking. However, at the operational level, the simple fact is one of Russia's military commitments, for potentially several thousand soldiers, was just removed. That will likely hurt Ukraine in the current fight rather than help it.
IIRC, Zelenskyy hasn't left Ukraine since the war began. I doubt he'll leave until it's over. And Putin can't risk another humiliation of being made to wait for other heads of state to see him.There have been reports that both Putin and Ukraine's Zelensky will attend the G20 summit in Bali on 15-16 November,
I don't disagree with any of the comments about the 'Stans or about Moscow losing influence. That's a strategic topic and is definitely worth tracking. However, at the operational level, the simple fact is one of Russia's military commitments, for potentially several thousand soldiers, was just removed. That will likely hurt Ukraine in the current fight rather than help it.
It's the same as when enraged by the RAF bombing Berlin, Hitler redirected his bombers from hitting strategic targets (aircraft factories, radar stations, etc.) and towards London in an attempt to terrorize the British people. This achieved nothing of the sort and served only to deplete Germany's arsenal whilst leaving Britain's war industry to ramp up production unmolested.The Fuhrer is having a tantrum - a professional military, especially one that has a supply issue, would use those resources on enemy concentrations to better slow their advances.
This is a trait amongst dictators, allowing emotions to supersede Generals.It's the same as when enraged by the RAF bombing Berlin, Hitler redirected his bombers from hitting strategic targets (aircraft factories, radar stations, etc.) and towards London in an attempt to terrorize the British people. That worked out well for him....