 New cases of Russian forces using old equipment, particularly MTLB armored tractors from the 1950s, have been recorded in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. That's according to Forbes.A recent Russian media report from the brutal battle for Avdiivka depicts at least one old MTLB armored tractor armed with an old 2M3 naval turret fitted with over under 25mm autocannons. We've seen these MTLB 2M3s before, sitting outside the workshop that apparently helps riding trains from Russia into the Ukraine war zone. Standing guard alongside civilian construction crews in occupied Ukraine, apparently in order to protect the crews then busy digging fortifications for the Russians from Ukrainian drones, the article reads, but the MTLB 2M3 in the recent media report is different than most of its vehicular can. The 2M3's guns are more flush with the hull of the MTLB. The turret, in other words, is somewhat integrated with the vehicle that carries it. This is a change for the line of do-it-yourself MTLB fire support vehicles, which should be able to hurl 1.5 pound shells out to a distance of 2500 yards at a rate of 300 rounds per minute per gun, the Russians began cobbling together the weird vehicles back in the spring. Mixing and matching old stored hulls and turrets in what obviously was a desperate bid to make good escalating losses of modern combat vehicles in the now 22 month wider Russian war on Ukraine die in most cases, the 1950s. Vintage MTLBS and their even older 2M3 turrets have been minimally integrated. Technicians apparently have just welded or bolted the 210 turrets to the tractors without blending their hydraulics and electrical systems and without rebalancing the MTLB's center of mass.