Russian attack | Russia is now gathering military equipment around the world in order to continue its attack on Ukraine, reports Bloomberg

Economic|Russian invasion

Russia is currently hauling military equipment, such as vehicles and weapons, around the world because of the war of aggression it started in Ukraine, reports the news agency Bloomberg.

The US administration believes, according to Bloomberg’s source, that Russia has used merchant ships to transport military cargo to the Black Sea.

The news agency uses as an example a ship named Sparta II that left Syria and passed through the Bosphorus Strait to the Black Sea at the end of July.

According to satellite images and intelligence sources seen by Bloomberg, the ship was almost certainly bringing military vehicles to Russia at the port of Novorossiysk.

According to the sources, the exact type of vehicles remained unclear, but vehicles had been seen aboard the ship in Syria and it was later identified in Novorossiysk as well with at least 11 vehicles.

According to Bloomberg, the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in 2017 that the Russian military has tested more than 160 different advanced weapons systems in Syria, including fighter jets, laser-guided missiles and tanks.

Bloomberg’s according to Russia denies that it would have problems in replacing the equipment lost in the war.

However, US and European sources say that the loss of numerous tanks and other armored vehicles has forced Russia to rely on older equipment, such as the decades-old T-62 tanks.

According to the US estimate, 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the attack. Russia is also estimated to have used up a significant proportion of its precision-guided munitions and lost 4,000 tanks or other armored vehicles.

Russia has transferred its military resources to Ukraine from elsewhere as well. According to reports denied by Russia, it has thinned out its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to the United States, Russia already moved troops from the region of South Ossetia, which had unilaterally seceded from Georgia, in March.

Director of the CIA William Burns said in July that Russia was trying to buy unmanned armed drones from Iran.

According to one Bloomberg source, North Korea may also become a new source of artillery equipment for Russia. North Korea’s systems are of reasonably good quality and last month the country recognized the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent.

Although Russia has not resorted to a large-scale campaign, representatives of regional administrations have offered people financial incentives to become a short-term volunteer. It has been said that Russia even recruits prisoners as soldiers.