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Ukraine claims that Russian forces were misled and attacked fake military targets.
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Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said Russia attacked the models with Iskander-M missiles.
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The Iskander-M is a ballistic missile with a range of up to 500 km.
Ukrainian troops say they deceived Russia by using Iskander-M missiles for the production of dummy aircraft and air defense systems.
Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, posted about the clever tactic on Telegram.
He shared images that he said showed recent enemy attacks using Iskander-Ms on the models, which he said were located at an airfield near the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine and the Yuzhne region, near the Black Sea port of Odessa.
He said the images were taken by Russian unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
“The air force personnel successfully carried out passive defense measures!” Oleshchuk wrote in the message.
“Thanks to everyone who helps with high-quality models of aircraft and air defense systems. The enemy has fewer ‘Iskanders’ and more models will be delivered,” he added.
It wouldn’t be the first time Ukraine has used “fake” military targets since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian forces continue to deploy incredibly realistic decoys, as seen here: a fully mechanically functioning mock AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar system. photo.twitter.com/rdpcpICLC4
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 1, 2024
In February, photos and videos circulated on social media that appeared to be highly realistic mock-ups of radar and air defense systems.
Russia has also used such tactics in war, painting silhouettes of naval ships on land to fool Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defence said in an update on the conflict in March.
Business Insider reached out to the Ukrainian Air Force for comment.
The Iskander-M rocket
The Iskander-M is a Russian “short-range road-mobile ballistic missile (SRBM) with a range of up to 500 km” (about 310 miles), according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies Missile Defense Project.
The missile has a launch weight of nearly 8,900 pounds and was first used in combat by Russian forces against Georgia in 2008, according to the Missile Defense Project.
Moscow claims the missile will not be matched by Western rivals until 2025.
“According to designers, foreign states will be able to create such a model no earlier than 2025,” said Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Colonel General Oleg Salyukov. said.
Read the original article at Business insider
