Ukraine has claimed to have tricked Russian forces into wasting missiles by using dummy versions of its warplanes and air defence systems.
Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk publicly thanked people who helped create the mock-ups put in place at the Dovhyntseve airfield near Kryvyi Rih, the city where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was born, and a district of the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Mr Oleshchuk published a video filmed by a Russian reconnaissance drone. In it, an Iskander missile can be seen attacking what he said were the mock-ups of warplanes and SAM systems, with a blast erupting on the ground of the airfield after a strike.
The Russian Defence Ministry shared similar footage on July 4 via its channel on the messaging platform Telegram.
In its message, the ministry led by Andrey Belousov said to have launched a missile strike on the airfield which destroyed “one Mig-29 combat aircraft of the AFU, aviation weapons, and motor vehicles of the aviation engineering service”.
Upon providing this insight, Mr Oleshchuk said he was making “an exception” to the Ukrainian rule to rarely share similar information only to show the public “that not everything is straightforward”.
He wrote: “Air Force personnel conducted passive defence measures! Thank you to everyone who helped with the top-quality mock-ups of aircraft and SAM systems. The enemy now has fewer Iskander missiles and more mock-ups will be delivered.
“Of course, both we and the enemy have losses of equipment and people. But neither side is talking about it publicly. It is clear why!”
