Ukraine is using fake rocket launchers made of wood to get Russia to waste its missiles on useless targets, report says

• Ukraine is tricking Russia with fake rocket launchers made of wood, The Washington Post reported.
• Russia is firing at the useless target and wasting missiles as a result, the report said.

Ukraine is firing wooden decoys made to look like rocket launchers to trick Russia into wasting its missiles on them, The Washington Post reported.

The decoys are made of wood but look like advanced US rocket launchers when spotted by Russia's drones, The Post reported.

The drones then send the location of the dummy launchers to Russia's cruise missile carriers in the Black Sea, prompting the carriers to fire — but on useless targets, The Post reported.

The Post said its report was based on interviews with interviews with senior US and Ukrainian officials. The Post said it has also seen photos of the wooden decoys.

Russia used at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles in the first weeks of Ukraine trying the strategy, a senior Ukrainian official told The Post.

Ukraine is now making more of those decoy rocket launchers as a result, the official told The Post. The official did not say how many.

Russia has been targeting Ukrainian rocket launchers, including the US-donated High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that have allowed Ukraine to hit some strategic targets.

The Post noted that the dummy systems may have been behind Russia's claim that it had destroyed some HIMARS, even though Ukraine denies it and the US says all HIMARS are accounted for, working, and still in Ukrainian hands.

Ukraine's fight against Russia has been largely fueled by Western weapons. But the West was hesitant to give advanced weapons early in the war for fear they would end up in Russian hands.

Ukraine was also used to fighting Russia despite having a significantly smaller weapons supply. Russia repeatedly attacked Ukraine's east even before it invaded this February.

This means Ukraine's army is known for improvising, creating their own weapons by putting materials together, and finding ways to fight Russia while preserving its own weapons supply.