Ministry of Defence compares latest Russian kit to tractors as it slaps down Putin's claim he is just getting started

The British Ministry of Defence has compared the latest Russian vehicles to be deployed to tractors as it slapped down Vladimir Putin's claim he has “not even started” its efforts in Ukraine.

Russia's army is running out of decent kit and is deploying its reserve infantry in outdated personnel carriers, an intelligence update published on Saturday stated.

It came two days after Vladimir Putin claimed Russia “by and large hasn’t started anything serious yet”.

His remarks came amid reports Russia was training new forces to send to Ukraine where its troops are regrouping after completing their capture of Luhansk region, half of Donbas.

The MoD confirmed the Russian force deployment but added that the MT-LB vehicles the Russian infantry is rolling out are knackered and lightly armed.

"Russia has long considered them unsuitable for most front-line infantry transport roles," it said. "It was originally designed in the 1950s as a tractor to pull artillery, has very limited armour, and only mounts a machine gun for protection."

The low-slung MT-LB was designed as a Cold War "amphibious tractor" and can carry up to 10 soldiers in its cramped and airless hold, as well as a driver and a gunner. Its simple design compares to the more sophisticated BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, used in Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine, which carries 33mm thick armour, a 30mm autocannon and an anti-tank missile launcher.

Russian media has reported that the Arctic Fleets' 200th Motorised Infantry Brigade has deployed to Ukraine and Ukrainian intelligence has said that Russia is raising a new infantry corps near Nizhny Novgorod.

Rob Lee, a research student in the War Studies department at King's College London, said that the 200th Motorised Infantry Brigade had been involved near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, where it had taken heavy casualties and lost a large amount of equipment.

Of the patched-up 200th Motorised Infantry Bridge, he said that it now "has a mix of reservists, volunteers, and servicemen from military police, coastal defence units, and sailors from ships".

This cobbled-together deployment reflects the compromises that the Russian military is having to make to reinforce its armies in Donbas after more than four months of war which has killed at least 20,000 Russian soldiers and injured many more.

But on Thursday a bullish Mr Putin said that the West should stop using Ukraine as a proxy and instead meet the Russian army on the battlefield.

"Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say, let them try," he said. "Everyone should know that, by and large, we haven't started anything yet in earnest."