Before starting a newer count I decided to review the current one, because I was unsure about some BTR identifications. I decided to try Yandex. Alas, idk why I didn't use it before, there's so much newer footage there.
For example, the 4990th. Before the war there were over 600 MT-LBs, and we didn't get newer footage from that one in all these two years on Google Earth. But take a look at Yandex, just 91 MT-LBs remained there a while ago, three of them visibly broken hulls.
Another base we didn't got newer footage, the 230th. Here a lot of stuff is gone too.
All in all, of the total amount of MT-LBs we found during our updated count, these new Yandex images show that half of them are gone from storage already. Unfortunately, there's not much newer footage to significantly update our numbers of other AFV types.
Only a single base remains with a considerable amount of MT-LBs: the 7020th in the Far East, with 342 MT-LBs stored there as of May 2023. In every other base they're counted by the dozens, except at the 187th as of May 2022 where the number actually increased to 115.
I estimate the current number of MT-LBs in storage in 400-500, including 100 broken hulls. Consider that they started the war with 2,4k in storage and according to TMB2021 another 3k in active service.
Here are the prewar numbers in case someone didn't see this tweet.
1/ A while ago I did a small thread on BMP storage bases and which ones were likely to never be bothered with. I feel like it's worth doing the same with tanks.
2/ This is what remains in storage as of the latest imagery I could find. As usual, numbers still look big, but there are caveats.
3/ T-64s we already know their issues with them, so we can outight discard them from the count unless some dramatic development with regards to them happens (unlikely). That's already 1/5 fewer tanks in storage.
So, I got to look to a pretty recent image thanks to a kind soul. As of May 22nd there are 203 T-80s left in Omsk. More than expected, but that's what happen when you rely on Copernicus and similar low res imagery.
Even more interesting, roughly half the remaning T-80s are T-80U/UDs based on their came scheme, there's even more piles of turrets (@T_90AK wink wink) and roughly 30 completely cannibalized and turretles T-80 hulls, likely to be converted to BREM-80s.
Barely any movement in Russian storage bases in 2026 so far. Seems UVZ has enough T-72As in queue for now to pull more from storage, and everything else is pretty much unchanged.
The most remarkable things is the 2456th focusing now on BTR-70s and the 769th slowly pulling the remaining BMPs.
I guess we're officially at the point refurbishing stored armor no longer makes sense. They're all too old and broken down, Russia already has enough armor reserves for what little action they see and new production is already more than enough to compensate losses.
There clearly has been a huge movement of stored towed artillery pieces since late summer/early autumn 2025, but unfortunately we lack footage.
Just look at all those barrels cannibalized at artillery arsenals like Planovyi and compare them with the prewar situation or even just over a year before late 2025:
And also an increasing number of barreless pieces, like these 2A36s:
One of the biggest MT-LB bases prewar, the 7004th is now all but empty. Even most trucks are gone, but what's interesting, I can only spot 3 bad looking MT-LBs left here:
Kudos to @aXielMeMer9432 for finding the update on Google Earth!
@aXielMeMer9432 Otoh, almost everything updated in Ussuriysk is all but empty of anything but trucks, so we can expect the same for the 7020th Arsenal that didn't get updated this time. Here one example of a part of the 7033rd previously storing SPGs and MLRSs:
Just got another update from the 111th. Some interesting things: by now most tanks in this base are the ones in this spot (pics are from September on Google Earth):
Like in most bases, the scrapyard has been mostly cleaned out:
And most of the refurbed BMPs have been dispatched and are no longer in the 111th: