Putin’s troops plagued by friendly fire and Ukrainian tricks

Vladimir Putin’s troops are relying on outdated maps to direct their attacks while Kyiv’s tactics are easily deceiving them, a fresh analysis of Russia’s invasion has found.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces have relied on out-of-date maps and antiquated lists of military targets. Picture: AFP

Russian troops have been tricked into wasting ammunition on dummy Ukrainian targets and have a habit of killing each other with friendly fire, according to an analysis of the invasion.

President Vladimir Putin’s forces have relied on out-of-date maps and antiquated lists of military targets to direct their fire, the report says, and they have been easily deceived by Ukrainian tactics.

In one instance, Ukrainian forces disguised their airbases by taking pictures of blown-up hangars, printing the resulting patterns on to large sheets and draping them over fighter jets as a form of camouflage.

Unable to work out how Ukrainian pilots were still flying given the supposed destruction of the airbases, Russian forces speculated that Kyiv may have built some elaborate underground lair to enable their pilots to take off.

The report by the Royal United Services Institute drew on testimony from senior figures in the Ukrainian military and provides a comprehensive overview of the war so far.

Through lack of communication, Russian artillery is said to have targeted its own troops, while air defences have engaged friendly aircraft. “Fratricide has been a widespread problem for the Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine,” the report says. It notes that Russian forces have wasted ammunition on attempts to destroy dummy Himars, the US-built rocket launchers.

During the advance on Kyiv at the start of the war, Russian soldiers “lacked a clear understanding of where they were. Whole towns did not exist when the maps they were using were made,” the report says.

However, the analysis adds a warning about the continued potency of the Russian military. At the start of the war, Ukraine had 900 tanks compared with 2800 under Russian command.

“There is a perception that the armed forces of the Russian Federation are systemically incompetent, irredeemably corrupt, that their weapons are ineffective and unreliable, and that the force is incapable of adapting. This narrative is dangerous, both because it is inaccurate and also because it encourages complacency,” it says.

– The Times