A Russian military truck transporting seized Ukrainian armoured vehicles overturned in the region of Bashkortostan, Russia, during a traffic accident involving a civilian car. The KAMAZ truck, which was carrying a French VAB armoured personnel carrier and an American M113 vehicle, collided with a Kia passenger car before veering off the road and tipping into a ditch. Two people were reported injured in the crash, and the Kia vehicle was also forced into a ditch.
The armoured vehicles were reportedly being transported to Ufa to be displayed as part of Russia’s nationwide “NATO Trophy Equipment” exhibitions. These events are designed by the Kremlin to portray Russian military strength by showcasing equipment captured in the war against Ukraine. The exhibitions are intended to promote a false image of superiority over NATO, while ignoring the immense losses suffered by Russian forces since the start of the full scale invasion.
According to data collected by the independent Oryx project, which tracks visually confirmed military losses, Russia has lost over 21,550 units of military equipment as of May 2025. This includes close to 4,000 tanks, many of which have been destroyed, abandoned, or captured by Ukrainian defenders.
Despite the propaganda effort, these exhibitions have already proven hazardous. In April, at an event in Komsomolsk on Amur, a four year old boy was tragically killed after the hatch of an M113 armoured vehicle slammed shut and crushed him. The ramp folded without warning while the child was near the vehicle.
Russia continues to conceal the scale of its battlefield losses from the public while celebrating the few pieces of foreign equipment it has seized. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continue to resist and reclaim equipment captured from the invaders. In January 2025, soldiers from Ukraine’s 118th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade successfully captured a Russian T-62M tank during a battlefield operation.
The Russian dictator’s obsession with optics and propaganda remains a key feature of the war, but these efforts often expose deeper failures within the Russian military apparatus. What was meant to be a demonstration of strength ended up, quite literally, in a ditch.
