Russian mobilized soldiers being armed with machine guns in barely usable condition - British intel

According to Ukrinform, the UK Ministry of Defense said this in its new intelligence update published on Twitter.

"Russia has deployed several thousand newly mobilized reservists to the front line in Ukraine since mid-October. In many cases they are poorly equipped. In September, Russian officers were concerned that some recently mobilized reservists were arriving in Ukraine without weapons," the ministry said.

It added that open source images suggest that those rifles which have been issued to mobilized reservists are typically AKMs, a weapon first introduced in 1959.

"Many are likely in barely usable condition following poor storage," the agency said.

The UK Ministry of Defense also noted that AKM fires 7.62mm ammunition while Russia's regular combat units are mostly armed with 5.45mm AK-74M or AK-12 rifles.

"The integration of reservists with contract soldiers and combat veterans in Ukraine will mean Russian logisticians will have to push two types of small arms ammunition to front line positions, rather than one. This will likely further complicate Russia's already strained logistics systems," the agency said.