Russia Painted Fighter Jets on Yeysk Airfield as Decoys

Russia's armed forces appear to be trying to deceive Ukrainian intelligence by painting images of aircraft on an airfield near occupied Crimea.

Open-source intelligence expert Brady Africk shared satellite imagery which showed an apparent attempt to confuse Ukrainian drones and satellites.

"Russian forces painted newly constructed areas of Yeysk air base to resemble military aircraft," Africk tweeted next to images which were taken from June 26 to July 16.

The latter image shows five parked planes, one more than three weeks earlier.

The airbase is located near the town of Yeysk, in Russia's southwestern Krasnodar region, on the Sea of Azov, near the Crimean Peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.

"These apparent decoys were created over the past few months at the base, which is one of several used by Russian aircraft operating in Ukraine," added Africk.

He told Newsweek he first noticed this construction in mid-June and it continued into July. "While I can't be sure why these were specifically built, decoys have been used repeatedly since the beginning of the invasion by both sides to try and trick opposing forces into wasting munitions," he said.

Newsweek has emailed the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

Russia has reportedly used decoys throughout the war in Ukraine. Soon after the start of the invasion, U.S intelligence officials said that Moscow's Iskander-M missiles, believed to be fired from mobile launchers in Belarus and Russia, were deploying dart-shaped munitions as decoys to trick Ukrainian air defense systems, The Telegraph reported.

Even before the start of Moscow's invasion, it was reported that Russia had deployed a "decoy army" of inflatable tanks, missiles and fighter jets to deceive Kyiv and its allies.

Ukraine has also reportedly used trickery. Czech company Inflatech said it believed a third of the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) that Russia claimed to have destroyed were actually inflatable decoys it had produced.

The company told Czech TV that it could produce 35 of the decoys per month which could be used to waste Russian munitions. The decoys can be inflated using an electric or gas-powered blower and can generate a heat signal that can fool infrared sensors, according to Forbes.

Ukraine's armed forces said on Saturday that an oil depot and Russian military warehouses had been destroyed in Crimea after explosions were reported in the occupied peninsula.

Videos on social media showed plumes of smoke rising from several locations, including near railway tracks. Another clip showed a smoke cloud rising over a residential rooftop and several explosions can be heard.

The Russian-installed governor of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said that drones had tried to strike infrastructure on the peninsula, which Ukraine has vowed to retake.

Last week, Moscow accused Kyiv of being behind two explosions on the only bridge linking the occupied peninsula to Russia. This was followed by a barrage of Russian strikes on the western port city of Odesa.

Update 07/24/23, 3:53 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Brady Africk.