Russia painted several of its warplanes on airbase runways to affect the accuracy of Ukrainian strikes and prevent the enemy from correctly assessing the situation there, but then inexplicably sabotaged this deception tactic.

This is the subject of a recent assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence, which states that “following the continued success of Ukrainian attacks on military targets, Russia has been forced to employ a range of methods, using decoys and deception, to try to thwart Ukrainian efforts to strike its targets”.

One of the Russian airfields with fighter jets painted on the concrete runways is the airfield in Kirovsky (Crimean Peninsula).

“Such drawings have also been spotted on at least 12 other Russian airbases, which shows how serious the Russians are about future Ukrainian strikes and their ability to repel them,” the quoted source added.

However, Russian helicopters continue to steadily land on decoys, completely nullifying the deception attempt.

“In this way, they also reveal the true order of battle and the actual air force at these bases, which Russia probably wants to hide from Ukrainian intelligence services,” the British Ministry of Defense said.

It should be noted that during this war both armies used deception methods such as inflatable “tanks” or “HIMARS launchers”, wooden anti-aircraft systems, etc.

One reason for drawing silhouettes of aircraft is to fool drones or missiles that use optical target recognition systems.

For a similar reason, the Russian Navy in the Black Sea also tested different paint schemes on ships, most likely in an attempt to confuse the naval drones that caused them heavy losses.