In June 2023, a dramatic video spread across pro-war Russian channels. A drone dove on what looked like a Ukrainian tank, the strike landing in a fireball big enough to light up the sky. Commentators rushed to share the footage as proof of another Ukrainian loss.But not everything is what it seems in the Russia-Ukraine war.A day later, a different clip surfaced of a Ukrainian soldier grinning beside the wreckage, slapping the charred frame and laughing. The destroyed vehicle was never a tank at all, but a decoy.Up close, these plywood props often give themselves away with seams, fabric ripples, and flimsy frames. Yet from a drone’s eye view, they dot fields and firing positions so convincingly that enemy gunners are forced to second-guess every target.Now, analysts estimate that in some categories, half the ‘equipment’ spotted on the battlefield isn’t even real.