Pretend planes and silhouettes of subs: How Russia is trying to hide its hardware from Ukraine

Russia has been making use of camouflage and deception techniques to help conceal its submarines, surface ships and aircraft, the Ministry of Defence has revealed.

In its latest intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine on X, the MOD pointed out that Russia had not been properly utilising these techniques – known as maskirovka – in the early phases of the invasion of Ukraine.

Despite Russian military doctrine placing great emphasis on camouflage and deception, the MOD said there had been an operational failure to do this adequately at the start of the war.

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However, it said Russian aerospace and naval forces had probably been making a greater effort to enhance the survivability of their air and sea assets in the wake of the losses they had sustained over the past two years.

Dummy aircraft were being set up at Russian air bases, along with tyres being placed on the wings of the fake planes – something the Russians have done to the real aircraft to try to offer some protection.

Painted silhouettes of aircraft have also been spotted at airfields, along with painted silhouettes of submarines at naval bases.

Some Russian surface ships have also had their bows and sterns painted black to make their overall size appear smaller – and therefore a less tempting target.

One satellite image showed a Kilo-class submarine from the Black Sea Fleet at port alongside a painted silhouette.

Despite this increased use of maskirovka, the MOD said Russian air and sea assets remained vulnerable, and the techniques would probably not help reduce the number of aircraft shot down or ships sunk.