Russia Forced To Cancel Annual Tank Competition - Due To Tank Shortage

Darn. It's hard to hold a tank competition when you've plum run outta tanks. 

Russia also apparently feared not winning like it usually does because most of its best tank drivers from past years are now dead in Ukraine. JL 

Isabel Van Brugen reports in Newsweek:

Russia's decision last week to cancel its annual "War Olympics" could be linked to tank shortages from the war with Ukraine. Russia's Defense Ministry has organized the International Army Games annually since 2015. It typically involves multiple countries participating in a series of competitions. Due to losses in Ukraine, Russia is concerned that a shortage of tanks, tank crews and other skilled personnel "will risk the Russian team's usual domination of the medals table." Russia (also) canceled the games "because it is concerned the event would be seen as frivolous in wartime."

Russia's reported decision last week to cancel its annual "War Olympics" could be linked to tank shortages from the war with Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense has said.

"Last week, Russian media reported that the annual Russian International Army Games will not take place in 2023," the ministry said Friday in its latest assessment of the conflict in Ukraine. "Pitched as the 'War Olympics', the games have symbolised Russia's attempt to re-establish the military at the heart of popular culture."

Russia's Defense Ministry has organized the International Army Games annually since 2015. It typically involves multiple countries participating in a series of competitions. Russia's state-run news agency Tass reported on April 18, citing unnamed sources, that the games will now be held every two years. The next event will therefore be in 2024.

The decision to cancel this year's army games was made several weeks ago, according to another Tass source.

Russian authorities have yet to comment on the reports that this year's games have been canceled. Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment via email.

 

The British defense ministry said that Russia likely canceled the games "mainly because it is concerned the event would be seen as frivolous in wartime."

"Russian nationalist commentators, including former intelligence officer Igor Girkin, fiercely criticised the Russian Ministry of Defence (MOD) for going ahead with the 2022 iteration," it added.

There is also a realistic possibility that, due to losses in Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry is concerned that a shortage of tanks, tank crews and other skilled personnel "will risk the Russian team's usual domination of the medals table."

Last year's games were held in August across 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Venezuela, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan. More than 6,500 people across 260 teams from 35 countries participated, according to Tass.

This year's games were expected to be held in Russia and several other countries.

National military parades set to take place on May 9 to mark Victory Day—Russia's annual commemoration of the defeat of the Nazis in World War II—have also been scrapped in Crimea, and in the cities of Belgorod and Kursk, which border Ukraine. In Moscow, a military parade will still be held in Red Square on May 9, but the traditional in-person procession of the Immortal Regiment has been scrapped after security concerns.

In March, the Tbilisi-based open-source Conflict Intelligence Team said that Russia is using Soviet-era tanks to make up for equipment losses suffered in Ukraine. It shared undated footage, saying that it showed T-54 and T-55 tanks being taken westwards by train from the town of Arsenyev in Russia's far-eastern Primorsky Krai region.

Earlier, the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said the Russian military might be resorting to deploying Soviet-era tanks. It was due to equipment losses and "because parts to repair the T-54/55 tanks are abundantly available and substantially cheaper."

"The Russian military will likely experience greater numbers of casualties by fielding these older tank systems in Ukraine," the ISW said.