Russia’s Shoigu: Much-hyped Western weapons ‘far from flawless’ in real combat

Russia’s defense minister Sergey Shoigu said on Monday the “much-touted” Western military hardware supplied to Ukraine failed to be flawless on the battlefield, as evidenced by combat trophies collected by Moscow and on display at the Army 2023 international arms show.

“The West's widely advertised technology has in fact turned out to be far from flawless. You can see this just for yourselves by looking at the exposition of trophies of captured weapons,” Shoigu said at the Russian military expo.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it will present captured equipment supplied by NATO to Ukraine.

The Russian forum is said to feature “battle-proven weapons”. Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheyev said: “Russian weapons to be on display at the Army forum’s sites have a successful track record of their use on the battlefield. They have proven to be easy to operate and simultaneously very effective against cutting-edge hardware of our Western competitors.”

He added: “We’ll show our partners aircraft, air defense and electronic warfare systems, armored vehicles and tanks, artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles and counter-UAV systems, small arms and combat gear and tell them in detail about the experience of their combat use within the scope of information provided by the Russian Defense Ministry. The presented weapons have undergone necessary upgrades and have been improved taking into account feedback from the zone of the special military operation.”

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