BTR-22 suddenly shows up and gets caught in camera during the Zapad exercises in Belarus. The appearance of the type in exercises suggest the Russian MoD is very seriously considering this.
To sum it up, it's a rearranged BTR-82A with the engine in front, proper rear hatches, better armor all around and under against mines. Uses as much BTR-82A components as possible.
Compared to the BTR-87. The BTR-87 was a proposed project in 2015 to modernize the BTR-82 with a front engine and rear hatches. The original intention was an export model. The BTR-22 has lessons learned from the Ukraine War, featuring ECM modules for example, and uses the same combat module as the BTR-82A with the 2A72 30mm cannon and 7.62mm machine gun. The BTR-87 features a different combat module that uses the 2A42 cannon and ATAKA missiles. Same idea with a different interpretation based on the experience gained between the time gap from 2015 vs. 2023.
If you're asking what happened to the Bumerang, despite the Bumerang superior and next gen, it's more expensive and for now, the MoD wants cheap and easy to produce, utilizing as many components from the BTR-82A to make the transition as seamless as possible.
BTR-87
Pictures below show the Ballista module instead with the 2A42 cannon and two ATAKA missiles.
BTR-22

