Inflatable tanks and flat back pistols

In June 2023, a video began to spread on pro-war Russian social networks, apparently showing a drone destroying a Ukrainian reservoir in a massive explosion.

But everything is not what it seems in the Russian-Ukraine war.

This video was followed by Ukrainian images showing a soldier, laughing pointing on the burning wreck and exclaiming: “They hit my wooden tank!”

The reservoir in question seems to be a plywood lure used by Ukrainian forces to deceive the Russians.

It is one of the thousands of models of large -scale military equipment used by Ukraine and Russia to encourage the enemy to waste ammunition, time and precious efforts.

Almost everything that is seen on the front line – small radars and grenades launchers with jeeps, trucks, tanks and real soldiers – may be wrong.

These imitations can come in flat packs, be inflatable, 2D or create a radar illusion of a tank by reflecting radio waves in a special way.

In the case of certain types of weapons deployed in Ukraine, at least half of them are in fact imitations of lure.

Among the most popular lures used by the Ukrainian army are models of British manufacturing M777 shores. The Western allies would have provided Kyiv Kyiv with more than 150 of these very maneuvable and precise artillery pieces, nicknamed “three axes” by Ukrainian soldiers.

As with many other types of equipment used by the Ukrainian army, volunteers play an important role in the supply of lure models.

Ruslan Klimenko says that his group of volunteers Na Chasi alone has done and provided to Ukrainian forces of around 160 M777 models. What makes them particularly popular is the fact that they take three minutes, two people and no tools to meet on the front line, says Mr. Klimenko. “No matter how much is delivered, everything will be put wisely,” he told the BBC.

Pavlo Narozhny of another group of volunteers, called Reaktyvna Poshta, says that at any time, 10-15 The M777 lures are in production.

Reaktyvna poshta lures are plywood, are available in flat packs and cost $ 500 at $ 600.

Russia often targets them with drones Lancet Kamikaze costing about $ 35,000. “You do the calculation,” said Narozhny.

One of its Lures M777, nicknamed Tolya, spent more than a year on the front line, surviving with at least 14 lancets, he says.

The troops “continue to put it back with adhesive tape and sticky screws, and go back to the front line,” says Narozhny.

It depends a lot on how lures are deployed. To successfully draw the enemy fire, it helps to faithfully recreate a real position with ruts, ammunition boxes and toilets. When it is properly finished, it can deceive not only the enemy, but also the visiting officers.

“We had a case in a brigade where a visiting commander was fooled by a decoy: he asked:” Who gave the order to deploy artillery? Where did the M777 come from? “” Said an officer of the 33rd mechanized brigade detached from Ukraine, who uses the charisma of appeal.

According to him, another tactic is to quickly eliminate real cannons such as mortars after use and replace them with lures.

“They are ideal for deceiving the enemy and wasting expensive resources on anything. They work, we need more,” he said.

The arsenal of the Leurches of Russia is also rich and varied.

About half of the drones involved in one of the recent air attacks in Russia are in fact cheap imitations, according to the Ukrainian army.

“It is fifty-five these days. Fifty percent are real Shahed drones, and fifty percent are imitation drones. Their work is to overload our air defenses and make us use a missile against a drone that costs peanuts”, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Yuri Ihnat. “Sometimes it is a plywood that seems to have been struck together by schoolchildren.”

While in the air, however, he looks like a deadly Shahed drone with Ukrainian radars, said the Ihnat pass.

A Russian company, rusbal, produces imitations that include 2D lures to mislead information collection from air or space, lures that imitate the heat given by engines or radio traffic from the feet of soldiers and reflectors who deceive the radars of the enemy.

Real soldiers can also be imitated. Volunteers from the People’s Front Movement Supported by the Kremlin in Novosibirsk have made models bearing military uniforms. To imitate human warmth and therefore deceive the Ukrainian thermal imaging cameras, their trunks are wrapped in heating wire under the jacket.

But of course, lures are not a new idea at war.

In preparation for day-day landings, an entirely false army group was created in the United Kingdom, equipped with dummy tanks and lure planes.

All this was part of a tip developed to hide reality on the field and give the Allies the element of surprise they needed to launch their attack.

Military technology has improved considerably since the Second World War. Drones and unmanned systems on the battlefield are a major innovation in this war, for example.

But whatever the new weapons of destruction on the battlefield, it simply shows that the subterfuge and the cunning – even with something as simple as a blowing doll – will always play a role in the war.