Donbass days, Kalash nights
Via MilMag in Poland, here’s a picture of equipment carried by one of the Russian soldiers from the 234th Black Sea Guards Paratrooper Regiment fighting in the Donbass, Ukraine. He participated in the fights over Luhansk International Airport and Krasnodon town in 2014.
-An old-school 5.45mm AK-74 rifle with an RPK-74 45-round magazine, and GP-30 underbarrel grenade launcher.
-8 standard 30-round magazines, 5 VOG 30mm grenades for the launcher, 2 F1 fragmentation hand grenades with fuses.
-2 tourniquets, one pressure bandage.
-On the top: an RPG-18 “Mukha” disposable 64mm anti-tank launcher (the LAW-ski!)
-A flare, a smoke grenade, imported Swedish Morakniv knife, a multitool (Leatherman?), Petzl headlamp and a flashlight.
-Sawing kit, 2 packs of Seven Oceans emergency dry rations, scotch tape, a pen, some misc. papers, a carabiner, safety pins, and the most important item of them all for any infantryman – spare socks.
Russians/Soviets have long been a fan of carrying tourniquets/IFAKs on their Kalash, going back to the old Afghani days: