Flat-pack replicas of British artillery pieces that can be put together in minutes are being used by Ukraine to fool Russian forces. A volunteer group says it has supplied Ukraine with about 160 models of the UK-made M777 howitzers as new details emerge of Kyiv’s decoy army.
Both Ukraine and Russia are using decoy imitations to deceive each other into wasting precious ammunition, effort and time. Thousands of full-scale replicas of military kit are reportedly being used on the frontline, including inflatable dummies. More than half of some weapon types deployed in Ukraine are in fact decoys, it is claimed.
Ruslan Klimenko told BBC News that the M777 models supplied to Ukrainian forces by his volunteer group Na Chasi are proving particularly popular due to their easy assembly.
He said they can take three minutes, two people and no tools to be put together on the frontline.
Mr Klimenko told the broadcaster: “No matter how many are delivered, all will be put to good use.”
Reaktyvna Poshta, another volunteer group, also supplies M777 decoys which are made out of plywood and are flat–packed.
They cost around £370-£444 and at any given time.
It is said Russia regularly targets them with kamikaze drones costing approximately £26,000.
“You do the math,” said Pavlo Narozhny from Reaktyvna Poshta.
Deception has long been a tactic used in conflict, for example in the build-up to D-Day in 1944 during World War 2.
A fake army, including inflatable dummy tanks, was set up in the UK as part of a plan to draw Germany’s eye away from Normandy.
Russia is also using decoys in a bid to confuse Kyiv’s forces.
Yuri Ihnat, Ukrainian air force spokesperson, said around “50%” of drones launched by Russia are imitations.
He told the BBC: “Their job is to overload our air defences and ideally get us to use a missile against a drone that costs peanuts
“Sometimes it’s a plywood thing that looks as though it was knocked together by some schoolchildren.”
Other military kit such as small radars, grenade launchers and trucks on the battlefield can also be decoys.