With wooden tanks and other mock-ups, Ukraine is fooling the Russians soldiers and prompts them to waste their costly missiles. A DV team visited a workshop for fake weapons near Kyiv. Here's what we saw there:
They are used for decoys - the wooden models of Western weapons intended to become targets for Russian missiles. With them, Ukraine deceives the Russian soldiers and tries to incite the enemy to launch its expensive missiles in vain. A DV team visited a workshop for making such models in the Kyiv region, where volunteers work. Disassembly and assembly are quick, and in appearance they can be distinguished from real weapons and successfully mislead the Russians.
Ruslan Kravchenko, who is a carpenter by profession, received an inquiry from the military a year ago. He is a father of three and used to organize head-to-head tournaments in his spare time. Today, he directs the production of the models in the workshop near the Ukrainian capital, for which he uses photos from the Internet. He told DV that, with the help of his colleagues, more than a hundred mock-ups have already been produced in the workshop. "A real howitzer costs at least three million dollars, i.e. we have already saved the army about three hundred million."
This is how Ukraine saves hundreds of millions of euros
His fake howitzers sell for about $1,000 each. Ruslan and his team specialize in these, but they also produce other weapons: both missiles and armored personnel carriers. To mimic the heat in the vehicle's engine, they use ordinary spark plugs that successfully fool thermal imaging cameras.
For now, the volunteer team has no plans to expand the palette, although demand is high. The problem is that time and people are not enough. Students also started helping in the workshop, after many of the workshop employees went to the army.
Ilya, who is a landscape architect, would also like to go to the front, although he enjoys working with wood. "For us in civilian life to be able to do something that actually helps the military and our guys is extraordinary. They survive as the missiles are aimed at the harmless wooden mock-ups. And it is expensive for the enemy to hit our weapon models - it is much more expensive than making them."
At the workshop near Kiev, models of the "Starlink" terminals are also produced. of Elon Musk - which should also fool the Russians. Sometimes the military arranges a dozen mock-ups and hides a real device between them - so its chances of survival increase.
The woodworkers who make the replicas make every effort to ensure that their parameters do not differ in any way from the real ones. As Mihailo Roman, the master of this type of replica, told DV: "Our tasks are clear - firstly, the models must be foldable, secondly, they must resemble modern weapons as much as possible and drones cannot distinguish them, and thirdly, they must be cheap. Through the models we can save the lives of many of our soldiers. The more models there are and the more attacks against them, the better.
"The Phantom Army" of the United States
The use of model weapons has a long history in military affairs. For example, during the American Civil War, wooden cannons painted black repeatedly fooled the Northern army. Such fake weapons were also used in World War II, when the US even equipped an entire "ghost army" with inflatable tanks, cannons and planes. The sound of the footsteps of marching soldiers or the movement of a tank column was recorded and played over loudspeakers. The goal was the same: to deceive the enemy.
In Russia's war against Ukraine, both sides are using mock-ups, but these days, deceiving the enemy is becoming more and more complicated.
The actions of the American "ghost army" of the Second World War remained a secret for 50 years. The Ukrainian units also do not disclose exactly what copies of weapons they use and where.