American military officials believe Russia has lost “up to 80,000” troops. However, the Ukrainian military admits it loses between 100 and 200 troops every day. So the greatly outflanked Ukrainians have been exceptionally creative in their warfare. They have managed to trick the Russians into wrongly deploying their most expensive munitions.
The Ukrainians set up wooden decoys to look like the most advanced American rocket systems. These fakes trick the Russian drones. Then a naval cruise missile carrier in the Black Sea fires upon the duds, wasting expensive and limited Russian munitions.
The Ukrainians have finally received HIMARS (American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems). And these long-range weapon systems can hit a target up to 50 miles away. But a top Ukrainian government explained what else Ukraine has done against its monster enemy as the military faces “one of its coldest winters in decades,” The Washington Post reported:
‘When the UAVs see the battery, it’s like a VIP target. A small Soviet army cannot beat a big Soviet army. We need to fight asymmetrically.’
The Pentagon’s acting spokesman Todd Breasseale said:
‘We are aware of these latest claims by Minister Shoigu, and they are again patently false. What is happening, however, is that the Ukrainians are employing with devastating accuracy and effectiveness each of the fully accounted for precision missile systems.’
A member of the American diplomatic team commented:
‘They’ve claimed to have hit more HIMARS than we have even sent.’
Military researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, which is a Washington think tank, George Barros said:
‘If the Russians think they hit a HIMARS, they will claim they hit a HIMARS, “s” Russian forces very well may be overstating their battle damage assessments after hitting HIMAR decoys.’
And a military analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Rob Lee, added:
‘A Kalibr missile launched at a fake HIMARS target in a field is a missile that can’t be used against a Ukrainian city. Such a reorganization would degrade the Russians’ ability to mass artillery fires — a tactic they’ve relied on to make gains in eastern Ukraine.’
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu commanded his generals attack the multiple U.S. weapons systems. So the Russians hit the wooden rocket systems with 10 or more Kalibr cruise missiles. But the Ukrainian military has accomplished much more:
‘In recent weeks, Kyiv’s operatives have blown up rail and electricity (supply) lines in occupied Russian territory, detonated explosives inside Russian arms depots and assassinated suspected collaborators.’
The Russian military has a name for these tricks, “maskirovka.” And it used fake equipment and fake signals intelligence” to throw off the German army in World War II.
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said in early August, according to the U.S. Department of Defense:
‘U.S. defense officials say Russia’s stockpile of precision-guided missiles has been running low, and U.S. export controls on microchips are making it “a lot harder” for Russia to replenish those munitions,’
It appears the Ukrainians will win this war with their brains as much as with its military strength.
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