Ukraine, among the Russian army armored vehicles also the Italians Iveco

Among the Russian military convoys in the offensive in Ukraine also parade the Lmv Rys light armored vehicles, known as Lince in Italy, assembled in Russia under license from Iveco.

Since 2012, the Iveco LMV (Light Multirole Vehicle) has been part of the equipment of the Russian Armed Forces.

As AnalysisDifesa reported in November 2014, “the 358 4 × 4 Iveco LMV-M65 Rys (Lince) vehicles were all assembled and delivered to the Russian army”. The supply follows the contract signed in June 2011 between Iveco Defense Vehicles and Oboronservis, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense responsible for procurement. Under this agreement, Iveco and Oboronservis have set up an industrial joint venture aimed at gradually locating LMV production in Voronezh.

The contract, worth about one billion dollars, provided for the development and production of 1,775 vehicles, but was canceled in 2013. "The Italian vehicle, similar to the Lince used by the Italian armed forces and purchased by 10 other nations, was preferred the national product GAZ Tigr ”underlined SviluppoDifesa .

This all happened before 31 July 2014, when the EU adopted Council Decision 2014/512 / CFSP on restrictive measures in view of Russia's actions that destabilize the situation in Ukraine. These include the embargo on the sale of arms.

Meanwhile, the Iveco Lince armored vehicles were also part of the Russian contingent in Syria in 2015. And now, while Italy is sending weapons to Ukraine in support of the defense of Kiev , the same Iveco armored vehicles are part of the Russian military convoys.

All the details.

THE ARSENAL OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY

As Paolo Muri describes on InsideOver , in the offensive in Ukraine “Moscow is using all the types of MBT ( Main Battle Tank ) present in its arsenal, with the exception of the T-14s. T-72s of various types, T80s and T-90s were seen. There are also several combat vehicles for infantry (AIFV – Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle ) of the BTR and BMP series as well as lighter ones for airborne troops (the Vdv) type BMD together with the ubiquitous MT-LB. The Moscow army is also using smaller vehicles than the BTRs such as the rotated Tigr and the Russian-made Iveco “Lince”, or LMV-M65 Rys ”.

INTEREST IN ITALIAN ARMORED IN 2011

In fact, in 2011 Russia expressed its intention to purchase between 1500 and 1700 Italian armored vehicles Lmv M65 from Iveco. "This was reported by the Russian newspaper Izvestia – taken up by Ansa – citing sources from the Russian military-industrial complex after the news of a strengthening of military cooperation between Italy and Russia, also with the purchase of Italian armored vehicles, announced in November 2011 by the chief of the Russian General Staff, gen. Nikolai Makarov, in the meeting with his Italian colleague, gen. Biagio Abrate ".

“The armored vehicles – wrote the newspaper – should be assembled in Russia and cost from 300 to 500 thousand euros each, depending on the equipment. The cooperation would have allowed the Russians to acquire the know-how, to be used to design the platform for the creation of the Russian "Boomerang" armored vehicles. The interest in the Lynx was born after the blitzkrieg between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 for South Ossetia ”.

PRODUCTION IN RUSSIA

And in June 2011 Iveco Defense, a company of the Fiat Industrial Group, signed a contract with the aforementioned Oboronservis. Under this agreement, the new industrial capacity in Russia was supposed to add another 300-500 units per year.

Thus began the production of the Iveco LMV for Moscow, specially adapted to the needs of the local armed forces, which were gradually moved to Voronezh, Russia.

In 2012 the Russian army received 67 Iveco LMV Rys. Another 358 were assembled locally between 2013 and 2014.

GUEST OF HONOR AT THE 2012 RUSSIAN MILITARY PARADE

In 2012, the Lince armored vehicle was even the guest of honor at the great military parade that took place on May 9 in Moscow's Red Square in memory of the 67th anniversary of Russia's victory over Nazism. As stated in the press release issued at the time by Iveco Defense Vehicles.

“For the first time in the history of Soviet parades, a vehicle of foreign origin had a prominent place in the ceremony”, underlines the note from the Italian company.

THE SCANDAL FOR CORRUPTION THAT HAPPENED THE RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY

Meanwhile, the then defense minister Anatolij Serdjukov, head of the ministry since 2007, has come under investigation. As Antonella Scotti told Il Sole 24 Ore in November 2012, "an investigation into corruption centered on the Ministry of Defense and suspected fraud for three billion rubles, 95.5 million dollars" started from Moscow. The investigation concerned “Oboronservis, a holding company that since 2007 has been managing supplies of goods and services to the armed forces”.

And the investigation into the Defense also overwhelmed the order for the Iveco Lmvs in 2011.

In 2013 , the Russian press agency Tass revealed that a criminal case had been initiated against Oboronservis for evasion of the customs duty in relation to the import of 264 armored vehicles produced by Iveco following contracts concluded in 2011-2012.

In conclusion, in January 2013 "General Vladimir Chirkin, commander of the Russian ground forces, announced that the second part of the agreement – the supply of 1,200 vehicles – would be canceled: the army, the general warned," must focus on national producers ". The Tigris will reappear on the pitch ” reported the Sun in 2013.

ITALIAN ARMORED ARE ALSO PART OF THE RUSSIAN QUOTA IN SYRIA

However, the delivery and assembly of the first part of the agreement ended in 2014 as already mentioned.

After that, Russia even deployed Iveco light multi-role vehicles in Syria. This was announced in September 2015 by press sources close to the Russian Defense Ministry, specifying that "they are part of the Russian contingent in Syria, the reason was the good performance of the combat vehicle to protect men from improvised explosive devices", as reported Italy today .

EXAMPLE DESTROYED IN THE UKRAINIAN INVASION

And now the Italian Iveco Lmv armored vehicles are part of the land vehicles led by the Russian army in the Ukrainian offensive.

“Among the Russian losses in Ukraine there are also 6 Italian-made Iveco LMVs” writes Angelo Gambella. Turkish military analyst Arda Mevlutglu also reported on Twitter a video of a captured Russian military Iveco LMV. And on March 2 Dylan Malyasov, founder of Defense Blog , posted the photo of Lmv Rys destroyed.

A captured IVECO LMV of Russian forces pic.twitter.com/FIotTqzuul

– Arda Mevlutoglu (@ orko_8) February 25, 2022

Among the Russian losses in Ukraine we find 6 Iveco LMV (Light Multirole Vehicle) of Italian manufacture, the version for Russia of the light armored vehicle known in Italy as Lince.
4 destroyed, one abandoned (pictured), one captured by the Ukrainians. pic.twitter.com/HCarxKw0e9

– Angelo Gambella (@agambella) March 14, 2022