Bealrus and Russia are cooperating once again in transportng military equipment on the rail after they exchanged over 100,000 tonnes of ammunition between February and September. During the month of October, in fact, over 5,200 tonnes of cargo, namely infantry vehicles, was sent from Belarus to Russia.

Belarus officially denied the allegations, claiming that the vehicles are being transported to Russia to be modernised. However, sources including human rights organisation Charter97, said that “there are no reports of work on the modernization of Belarusian T-72 tanks in the Russian Federation today”.

Tanks were taken out of storage in Belarus and sent to Russia

The Community of Railway Workers of Belarus (Belzhd_live) claimed on Telegram that six trains were sent from Belarus to Russia during the month of October. All the trains followed the same route: from Urech’ye, in central Belarus, to the Uspens’ka station, on the Russian border with Ukraine.

The 969th Tank Reserve Storage Base is located in the city of Urech’ye, where over 2,000 samples of various armored vehicles are stored. These trains were in fact loaded with infantry vehicles, more specifically 98 T-72A tanks, 40 assembled BMP-2, and 20 BMP-2 to be assembled.

T72 tank. Image: Wikimedia Commons/Balcer

Not only tanks, trucks are being moved as well

Moreover, according to the Ukrainian Resistance Centre, Russia is using the rail to move military trucks from Staryya Darohi, in central Belarus to different locations in Russia. As Belzhd_live posted on Telegram, there have already been two shipments from Staryya Darohi for a total cargo of 53 Ural trucks, which are commonly used by the Russian army. This is where the 288th base of the reserve of automotive equipment is located.

The first cargo was sent to Millerovo, near the eastern border of Ukraine on 11 October. This convoy was composed of 19 flat wagons with 37 Ural trucks. On the second departure from Staryya Darohi, which occurred on 14 October, a train was sent to Kamenskaya, 80 kilometres south of Millerovo. On this convoy, eight flat wagons were loaded with 16 Ural trucks.

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