Footage has emerged on social media showing that Russians have begun to scale up the makeshift production of improvised assault vehicles without armaments, or "jihad-mobiles," one of which was built on the GAZ-66 chassis.
Previously, there have been instances where Russian forces attempted to storm the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the "support" of only unarmored Ural trucks, not to mention the so-called "golf carts." Thus, at first glance, there is nothing new in this story about "jihad-mobiles" regarding the Russian military.
However, on the other hand, it is essential to note the very fact that the Russians are scaling up the makeshift production of assault vehicles, even if this occurs at the level of private initiative.
This raises the initial assumption that perhaps China has reduced the supply volumes of the Desertcross 1000 "golf carts" for the Russian military. Or, more prosaically, due to high losses from the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian occupying troops have encountered such a shortage of armored vehicles that now the GAZ-66-based vehicle has become an acceptable assault tool for the invaders.
When discussing the severity of losses suffered by the Russians in terms of equipment and armaments during the war against Ukraine, one can start by referring to the summarized data from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which indicates that the Russian army has already lost 9,710 tanks and 20,189 armored vehicles of various types.
Furthermore, an interesting comparison can be made: according to The Military Balance 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army had nearly 3,000 tanks and 11,000 armored vehicles of various types in service. In contrast, The Military Balance 2024 reported that at the beginning of last year, Russia had 1,750 tanks and 9,000 armored vehicles of various types in service.
This comparison provides insight into the fact that when the Russians are reactivating equipment from storage bases or starting to "conserve" armored vehicles for assault actions, they may not only be driven by the logic of their current needs in the war against Ukraine.
They might also be guided by the possible logic of preserving their potential for a future "great war" against NATO, for which they actually need to "save" those armored vehicles instead of which they are now producing "jihad-mobiles" based on the same GAZ-66. Earlier, Defense Express reported on how many T-72 and T-90M tanks were provided to the Russian army by Uralvagonzavod in 2024.