Russians Fume over 19th-Century Machine Guns, WW1 Rifles in Ukraine

Russian troops deployed in Ukraine are using antiquated weaponry, according to influential voices in Russia's military sphere, as both Moscow and Kyiv burn through weapons ahead of the second anniversary of all-out war.

As Ukraine continues to urge its Western allies to provide more weapons and ammunition, similar calls are increasingly being made by pro-war Russians, addressing their military leaders.

Images of Imperial Russian machine guns and "piece of s*** WWI-era rifles" have triggered a backlash from supporters of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many of whom are loyal to Putin and form a key part of his base ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

"When the troops have nothing to issue, [they] get outdated weapons," according to a Telegram channel of pro-Russian soldiers and bloggers claiming to have been fighting in Ukraine for a decade. "We are seeing a growing crisis" where Russian forces cannot access replacement parts, the channel said.

Russian forces are using out-of-date arms, including a World War I-era Degtyaryov machine gun that had become "hopelessly obsolete" by the start of World War II, and a Maxim machine gun invented in 1884, prominent pro-Moscow military analyst, Rostislav Mokrenko, said earlier this month.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

"We got some feedback from our fighters, who said they received these for combat missions," another Russian nationalist milblogger, Topaz, wrote on Telegram."You can't be serious, guys. During the [Moscow-led] rebel wars [in Donbas] we would happily fire from 1940s PTRD anti-tank rifles, 1890s Mosin-Nagant rifles and SKS self-loading carbines. But these are different times and shortages of machine guns pose a real problem, which we need to solve fast."

The nearly two years of war across Ukraine have come at a high human cost, but have also claimed huge amounts of weaponry, including small arms.

Both sides have made use of older weapons, but age does not always mean a drop in their effectiveness.

"Certain weapons can be used for a very long time since they fulfil a function that remains unchanged," said Samuel Bendett, of the U.S. think tank, the Center for Naval Analyses.

Weapons put together many decades ago are "still relevant," because the underlying principles and tactics of warfare have not changed, he told Newsweek.

"An AK-47 is almost 70 years old at this point, and has changed little," Bendett added. "Simple submachine or machine guns have remain unchanged as well, like the M2 Browning still in use." It is also why the T-55 main battle tank, developed just after World War II, is still used in action, he said.

Earlier this year, Ukraine's military said one of its personnel had managed to intercept a Russian cruise missile using an M2 Browning. Ukraine has also extensively used large-caliber machine guns in its efforts to shoot down the Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones frequently launched by Russia.

There have been reams of reports of Russia pulling main battle tanks from museums or storage for use in Ukraine, including the T-55.

The British Defense Ministry suggested in July that Russian crews had been fitting tanks with vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) before evacuating them and sending the tank towards a target.

And open-source intelligence accounts had suggested Russia was using trucks made before World War II in its now long-running assault on the Donetsk town of Avdiivka.