Over the past week, analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) have found about 30 videos on social networks that indicate the transfer of military personnel and equipment from Siberia and the Far East to the western regions of Russia.

In the commercials, the vehicles are “captured on the roads in the process of being loaded onto railway platforms and on echelons moving to the west”. On the platforms, trucks, tankers, infantry fighting vehicles, Grad and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems were spotted. Analysts suggest that the Tor anti-aircraft missile system or the Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft gun were caught in one of the videos.

Grad of the Eastern Military District

BMP of the Eastern Military District

Together with the equipment, the military is traveling in passenger and freight cars, according to CIT. How many of them have not yet been established.

Analysts have identified several points for the dispatch of equipment: Ulan-Ude (Buryatia), Borzya (Trans-Baikal Territory), Belogorsk (Amur Region) and Ussuriisk (Primorsky Territory). In this regard, CIT assumed that the equipment belongs to the formations of all four armies of the Eastern Military District.

Such a widespread use of forces, as well as the fact that some echelons were seen already in Novosibirsk and Kemerovo (that is, outside the VVO), does not allow explaining the transfer by local exercises. Given that Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev recently announced the withdrawal of CSTO forces from the country, it seems most likely that the equipment will join forces concentrated in Crimea and in regions bordering Ukraine. 

(C)MEDUZA 2022