In Ukraine, large-scale production of models of military equipment of Ukrainian, Soviet and Western production was launched in order to mislead the enemy in order to divert fire to the wrong targets.

Promyslovy Portal transmits   with a link to CNN and Letters .

Dummies of military equipment are created with a single purpose: to be destroyed as quickly as possible. And in this, as noted by the representative of the metallurgical company “Metinvest”, which is behind the creation of the decoys, this “weapon” is very successful: hundreds of units became the target of Russian troops almost immediately after being deployed.

Ukrainian and American howitzers, tanks, mortars, radars, air defense… and the list goes on. If the weapon is already functioning in Ukraine, it is highly likely that Metinvest has either copied it or is in the process of creating it in a small hangar tucked away on the edge of a huge industrial site. It is noted that there is an impressive set of copies of the latest American and European weapons technologies.

The Russian authorities have repeatedly reported on the “destruction” of Ukrainian military equipment, in particular, provided by the West. However, most such targets are specially placed dummies on the battlefield.

Russian officials have repeatedly overestimated the amount of allegedly destroyed Ukrainian equipment. In particular, Putin declared in 2023 that Russia had destroyed “five Patriot complexes” near Kyiv, although only two were in service with Ukraine at that time.

“If the dummy was destroyed, we worked for a good reason ,” a representative of “Metinvest” told CNN. According to him, the faster the dummy is destroyed, the higher the quality of the product: if it is not shot at for too long, the engineers return for the drawings.

Such projects pursue two goals: to save the lives of military personnel and to force the Russians to waste their own, very expensive kamikaze drones, shells and missiles.

The Russian military has already destroyed several hundred dummies, the representative of the company said, while “Metinvest” does not have time to satisfy the demand from the military. In addition, she has to quickly adapt production. At first, the models were rather rough, and the goal was to deceive the enemy by showing that the armed forces were better equipped than they really are.

However, the supply of Western equipment forced the company to look for new ways of manufacturing dummies similar to the real complex and expensive military equipment that arrives in Ukraine.

“We do not count the number of baits produced, but the number destroyed, and this is the most important thing for us,” the company representative noted. “The sooner our baits are destroyed, the better for us.”

He showed reporters pictures of decoys in the field at various stages of their operation until he finally came across a photo he was particularly proud of. It shows a life-size effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin hanging on a tree somewhere in Ukraine. This is also the work of his people, says the representative of “Metinvest” with pleasure, and he hopes that, like the lure of weapons, it will soon become a thing of the past.

(C)NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL PORTAL 2023