Russia will start repairing Afghanistan’s Soviet-era arsenal under a new agreement signed at the International Security Forum in Moscow last week, the presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said. The deal is set to bolster the Taliban’s military strength and is part of Vladimir Putin’s effort to strengthen diplomatic and military ties with a group still isolated from the West since seizing power in 2021.
The Taliban inherited hundreds of old tanks, helicopters and military vehicles left behind by Soviet forces when they withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade of occupation that killed at least 13,700 Soviet servicemen and wounded 40,000-50,000. The arsenal includes T-55 and T-62 tanks, BMP-1 and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, and Mi-17 and Mi-24 helicopters, according to the defence ministry. The Russian state is the legal successor of the Soviet Union.
“Russia agrees to repair Taliban's Soviet-era tanks and helicopters, signed at Moscow security forum.”
“Afghan partners are primarily interested in the repair and restoration of various Russian-made military equipment,” Kabulov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, calling it “the first practical step” in implementing the agreement.
The irony was not lost on Ahmad Shuja Jamal, a former Afghan security official who helped manage military equipment under the previous Nato-backed government. The defence minister who inked the deal with Moscow is Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, son of the Taliban’s founder Mullah Muhammad Omar. “Many Taliban leaders including the so-called defence minister’s father came of age fighting the Soviets or, as they are often called in Afghanistan, the Russians,” Jamal said. “Their sons are cutting deals with the same enemy their fathers swore to kill in jihad.” He added: “There is an irony there that, if you knew the Taliban, you would not be surprised by. The Taliban are a contradiction in that they’re ruthlessly ideological but also shamelessly transactional.”
The Taliban also came into possession of sizeable Western military hardware when US-led Nato forces hastily left in 2021, though American forces tried to destroy or immobilise some of that equipment, including helicopters, tanks and armoured vehicles. Jamal said the Taliban government likely had a few Mi-17s that could still be functional despite years without maintenance, and “a few mothballed AN-26s, but their number isn’t game-changing”. He noted that under the previous government, they dismantled and cannibalised Soviet-era aircraft because they were moving to US-made assets for interoperability.
What remains unclear is how quickly the repair work will proceed and whether the revived Soviet hardware will give the Taliban a meaningful edge over a country still grappling with economic collapse and internal security threats.