Inside cheapskate Russian army’s shoddy equipment, from flimsy helmets to ‘useless’ first-aid kits

RUSSIAN soldiers have been complaining bitterly about their shoddy equipment, including flimsy helmets and useless first-aid kids.

In a viral video, a soldier crushes a Russian helmet with just his foot to show how poor quality they are.

TwitterA flimsy Russian helmet displayed by Ukrainian soldiers[/caption]

TwitterA Ukrainian first-aid kit (bottom), compared to the Russian one[/caption]

twitterAnother video shows a Russian helmet crushed easily underfoot[/caption]

Putin‘s mercenaries have also shared pictures of their inferior first-aid kits alongside the Ukrainian one, to show the contrast in equipment.

The Ukrainian kit seems to contain a number of tools, including scissors, an intubation tube to help someone breathe with a blocked airway, and much more.

In contrast, Russian troops have been sent to war with a kit appearing to contain nothing more than several instruction manuals and something to tie off a tourniquet.

Russian mercenaries who allegedly posted the picture on social media complained: “This is what Putin and Shoigu brought us,” referring to the defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

The photo’s original source is unclear, but it’s believed it was originally shared on several popular Russian Telegram accounts and blogs, including one which is crowdfunding to buy Putin’s soldiers equipment.

In a video shared online by a Canadian foreign fighter who joined the Ukrainian military, a Russian helmet is seen being easily crushed underfoot.

A second earlier video shared on Twitter shows two Ukrainian soldiers picking up an abandoned Russian helmet.

One takes off the helmet cover to reveal a large hole where a bullet or shrapnel has torn through the thin metal.

Despite Russia having the fifth biggest military budget in the world – around £52.4 billion last year – their own soldiers’ welfare doesn’t appear to have been a priority.

“The Russians have invested a lot of money in their military, and I’m certain the combat first-aid kits would not have broken the bank,” former White House National Security Council director for Russia Jeffrey Edmonds told The Daily Beast.

He went on: “If I were a Russian soldier, I might think, ‘Well, okay, my general health in combat really isn’t something that’s valued that much,’. It just shows a level of concern for your soldiers.”

Some of Russia’s military equipment could date back to the 1990s, or even earlier to before the fall of the USSR.

In a briefing last week, the nonprofit investigative group the Conflict Intelligence Team said: “A modern first-aid kit costs a lot of money, and the Soviet first-aid kit is already in stock, there is no need to buy it.

“Such a first-aid kit is not useless, but it is much worse than the ones the Ukrainians have… The Ukrainian army has much more time to save the wounded before they die.”

It follows reports that Russia’s tinpot army has been forced to use off-the-shelf cameras, gamepads, and sat navs to fix up its planes and drones.

Putin’s soldiers have become bogged down in Ukraine – with the country now littered with corpses and the wrecks of Putin’s vehicles.

Kremlin soldiers have reportedly been left under-equipped, under-resourced, facing starvation, and even suffering from their vehicles running out of fuel.

And photos and videos show some of the ragtag, off-the-shelf gear which Russian troops are being forced to use to make ends meet.

Footage shows a soldier dismantling a Russian military surveillance drone that crashed in Ukraine, only to find that the drone is not as advanced as one might expect.

The clip, released by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, shows that the drone uses a Canon camera that is mounted on a board with duct tape.

And the mode dial of the camera has been sealed with glue- not exactly the high-tech military equipment Russia boasts to have.

The camera used in the drone is a Canon EOS Rebel T6i, a £200-£300 DSLR camera launched in 2015.

And elsewhere in the clip, it shows the drone is jerry-rigged with a plastic bottle to use as a fuel tank.

TwitterAbandoned Russian military equipment seems to be from a different era[/caption]

APRussia’s military has seen heavy losses, despite their huge budget[/caption]

APPutin has been slammed by Russian mercenaries for the state of equipment[/caption]

Additionally, a report by Belarusian TV channel VoenTV appears to have accidentally revealed that Russian drones are controlled by cheap Logitech gamepads.

While desperate Russians have been creating “Mad Max” vehicles with extra armour bolted on in fear of being wiped up by British anti-tank NLAW missiles.

Pictures from across the war-ravaged country appear to show how Putin’s monsters have tried to adapt their vehicles to shield themselves as they advance in their bloody invasion.

But the modifications – which look straight out of the blockbuster dystopian franchise Mad Max – vary markedly.

One photo shows what looks like a troop carrier with a large bolted-on armour plate covering the windshield.

The dodgy-DIY work leaves just two slits so the driver can see where they’re going.

There also appears to be improvised armour covering both side windows and doors in a similar effort to protect themselves.