The Russian army has almost exhausted its old warehouses with Soviet equipment and ammunition. This is stated in a fresh analytical study of the KSE School of Economics (KSE), which is quoted by Financial Times.
According to logistics data, since 2022 the supply of equipment from the main warehouses of the Russian Federation decreased sharply-from 242 thousand tons in the first year of the war to the predicted 119 thousand tons in 2025. It is actually a return to the pre -war level, which indicates the exhaustion of the Soviet reserves.
KSE analyst Pavel Shkurrenko notes: " Russia now sends less materials for restoration and repair than they can process their repair stations ."
The Russian army is trying to compensate for the lack of technology, putting into operation preserved tanks, including T-72, T-80 and even T-54 of the 1940s.
However, Franz-Stefan Gadi's military expert warns against early conclusions: " Reducing deliveries does not mean loss of combat capability. Russia spends a lot of money on creating new stocks ."
Analytics also indicates a sharp increase in Russia's dependence on external partners - primarily the DPRK and China.
In 2024, 52% of all explosives that came to Russia came through the port of Nakhodka - this is the route of the DPRK that throws cargoes. There was no such supply before the war. The total volume is 250 thousand tons.
The KSE Analyst Lucas Reisinger emphasizes: " North Korea's dependence is a striking contrast with the image of the self -sufficiency that Russia projects out ."
According to GUR, 40% of all Russian ammunition is now North Korean. Seoul reports 28,000 containers that Pyongyang had already sent to the Russian Federation.
Gadi adds: " These supplies allow Russia to maintain the rhythm of blows in Ukraine, maintaining its quality inventories for a potential conflict with NATO ."
The KSE data also recorded 13 thousand tons of explosives of Iranian origin.
But China, although not officially supplied with lethal weapons, has become a critical source for the Russian MIC. Since 2021, the supply of China's border regions to Russian defense enterprises has doubled - to more than 3 million tons.
" China provides Russia with equipment and components that are critically needed for its military machine ," Risinger sums up.
Despite official statements about complete self -sufficiency, Moscow is increasingly turning into a dependent client of its isolated allies, without which it is no longer capable of maintaining the rate of war.
