- Ukraine accused Russia of deploying inflatable tanks near Zaporizhia in a Facebook post Thursday.
- However, according to Ukrainian officials, the Russian decoys were unintentionally emptied.
- Russia has engaged in fraudulent warfare for decades, but its recent efforts appear to have fizzled out.
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Ukrainian forces accused the Russian army of stationing inflatable tanks in southern Ukraine to deceive the opposing side and said the country’s “gum” decoys had been deflated in an anticlimactic display.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post on Thursday that the Russian army was running out of steam in the Zaporizhia region, where Russian troops have been firing continuously at Ukraine’s defenses for the past few days, according to the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration.
“While our partners are coordinating the supply of tanks to Ukraine, the invading army is also increasing the presence of ‘tank units’ in Zaporizhia Oblast,” wrote the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
But Russia’s duplication tanks are not what they seem, according to Ukrainian officials.
“Apparently, the open air of the Cossack region is not suitable for the occupier’s ‘rubber’ products, so they defecate without fulfilling their main task. Just like the Russian army’s pompous boast,” the agency said.
Inflatable tanks are a staple of the Russian deception doctrine known as maskirovka, or masking. The country’s approach to psychological warfare relies on an arsenal of inflatable tanks and launchers, decoy vehicles and soldiers, and other deception operations to encourage stealth tactics and sow confusion.
Russia has used elements of Maskirovka in decades-long conflicts, but their recent efforts in Ukraine appear to have fizzled, Ukraine claims.
It was not clear for what purpose Russia allegedly staged the inflatable tanks near Zaporizhia.
Early in the war, Ukraine also produced fake weapons, using fake wooden rocket launchers to trick Russia into firing rockets at useless targets. According to reports in August, the wooden decoys were meant to look like US missile launchers when spotted by Russian drones, prompting Russian cruise missile carriers in the Black Sea to fire on the wrong targets.
Deception as warfare has a long history. The US also used inflatable tanks during World War II as part of their Operation Ghost Army to trick the Third Reich into overestimating Allied military strength. The unit created illusions and attempted to spread disinformation using inflatable models of military vehicles, tanks and artillery, and audio recordings of sounds mimicking the movements of large armies.