(Reuters) – The commander of Ukraine’s Air Force said on Saturday that his forces tricked Russian troops into positioning missiles against sophisticated models designed to look like military targets.
Commander Mykola Oleshchuk, writing on the messaging app Telegram, said the models represented fighter planes and a battery of surface-to-air missiles. They were installed at an airfield near the central city of Kriviy Rih and in a district of the Black Sea port of Odesa.
A video attached to the post, described as footage from a Russian reconnaissance drone, showed what Oleshchuk said were Russian Iskander missiles attacking the representations.
“Air Force personnel conducted passive defense measures!” Oleshchuk wrote.
“Thank you to everyone who helped with high-quality aircraft models and SAM systems. The enemy now has fewer Iskander missiles and more models will be delivered.”
Oleshchuk said he disclosed the deception “as an exception, to show the public that not everything is simple.”
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Editing by Leslie Adler)
