In the run-up to the celebrations for this year’s Victory Day parade on May 9 in the “Victory Park” Poklonnaya Gora a long line of western “loot vehicles” from the Ukrainian war was set up. In addition to Leopard and Bradley battle tanks, the vehicles also include a Pinzgauer with a red-white-red flag on the side doors – although the vehicle was not supplied to Ukraine by Austria.
Together with Nazi tanks
The deployment of the vehicles follows a long “tradition”. Already in the Second World War the Germans and Russians presented captured vehicles, and the British at least captured fighter planes, to their populations back home. After the German victory over France in 1940, Allied aircraft and tanks were also displayed on Heldenplatz in Vienna, and the Ukrainians also repeated this practice after repelling the first Russian attempt to attack Kiev with captured Russian vehicles.
In order to reinforce the narrative put forward by the state leadership of an “existential” fight for Russia against the “fascist Nazi gang” in Kiev and against the allegedly reinvigorated “German axis”, a German SdKfz. 131 Marder-II tank destroyer from the Second World War (the vehicle comes from the well-known Kubinka Tank Museum) is also on display for the Russian public alongside a Marder infantry fighting vehicle captured in Ukraine from old Bundeswehr-stocks on display. Since 2022, the vehicle has been made available to Ukraine for its defensive campaign against Russia.
In keeping with the ideological narrative of Russia’s fight against the entire West, a flag of the original manufacturer’s country was affixed to every enemy tank, tracked and wheeled infantry fighting vehicle or other wheeled vehicle on display. When looking through current videos, Militär Aktuell also noticed a Pinzgauer off-road vehicle with a box body – with a red-white-red flag on the side door.
A Youtuber who calls himself “Englishman in Russia” filmed the so-called “trophy exhibition” in Moscow’s Victory Park and posted it online with commentary (see above).
No violation of neutrality
However, fears that the vehicle could have been transferred to Ukraine from public stocks can already be refuted. The 6×6 Pinzgauer 712T (designated 712M by the Russians) is unlikely to have come from Austria (the government is known to have decided against supplying military equipment to Ukraine), and according to Planning Director Lieutenant General Bruno Hofbauer, the army is not aware of any such variant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCHZXa7rNnU Nach der Behebung zahlreicher größerer und kleinerer Mängel war die Urversion des Serienfahrzeugs am 17. Mai 1971 vorgestellt und 1973 mit der Auslieferung erster bereits im Jahr 1970 vom Bundesheer bestellten Fahrzeuge begonnen worden (-> Steyr-Puch-Pinzgauer: Von Anfang an ein Erfolg). Bis zum Jahr 2000 liefen dann in Graz mehr als 30.000 Pinzgauer vom Band, die neben dem Bundesheer in größeren Stückzahlen auch an die Schweiz und an Saudi-Arabien, an Jordanien und die Streitkräfte vieler anderer Nationen verkauft wurden. In Großbritannien lief die Lizenzfertigung des Fahrzeugs im Anschluss an das Produktions-Aus in Österreich sogar noch bis 2007.
Even before this, many armed forces began to gradually decommission their ageing vehicles and sell them on – including to fire departments, rescue services and interested civilians. The ultra-high-terrain vehicles, some of which are offered via military vehicle brokers, are still highly sought-after and the supply is (see for example here, here and here) wide. In 2014/2015 alone, the Austrian Armed Forces decommissioned 700 Pinzgauers and sold them to Dorotheum for auction. Some of the vehicles had not been in service for years at this point and were only worth scrap value. In individual sales, the off-road vehicles are offered at between 11,000 and 15,000 euros, but for well-preserved examples with maintenance books, you have to calculate with around 25,000 euros or even more.
