A recent report by the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) revealed that an echelon of these old tanks was spotted on the territory of Russia, having departed from the 1295th Central Tank Reserve and Storage Base in the city of Arsenyev, Primorsky Krai.
The first modifications of the T-54 were adopted by the Soviet army in the second half of the 1940s, with the T-55 following in 1958. Despite their age, large quantities of these tanks ended up on the balance sheet of the Russian armed forces after the collapse of the USSR, with the Eastern Military District housing most of them. The last T-55s were withdrawn from combat duty in 2010 and replaced with more modern T-80BVs.
Despite their outdated features, such as their low level of protection, lack of rangefinders and ballistic computers, primitive sights, and inadequate gun stabilization system, these tanks still pose a threat to infantry and unarmored vehicles.
The reintroduction of these old tanks raises the possibility that they could appear alongside the T-62s on the front lines of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, or they may be sent to Syria after undergoing repairs.