What is ‘Maskirovka’, the centuries-old Russian war tactic used in Ukraine attack?

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an all-out attack on Ukraine last Thursday (February 24), but termed it as a “special military operation” to pursue the “demilitarisation and denazification” of the regime in Ukraine. The goal of the ongoing invasion, as per Russia, is to “protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the regime in Kyiv for eight years.”

Here are some quotes from Putin’s fateful speech announcing the war with Ukraine.

“Our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force.”

“What is happening today does not come out of a desire to infringe on the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. It is related to the protection of Russia itself from those who took Ukraine hostage and are trying to use it against our country and its people.”

The ongoing situation of Russia’s military pummelling in Ukraine is quite contradictory to the above statements made by the leader of the country in justifying its recent actions. This is an age-old Russian military deception tactic, named “maskirovka”.

“Maskirovka can be better understood by its literal English translation, which means ‘masking something’” tells Brijesh Singh, an author and an IPS officer who is an expert on the subject of information warfare and cybersecurity.

Maskirovka has been in the Russian military arsenal for centuries, which we got to know from the interesting history shared by Mr Singh. “It involves the use of dummies, decoys, denial, disinformation and deception to misdirect the enemy. It has been a part of Russian intelligence tradecraft for centuries, even before the communist era. It was actually taught at the military school founded by the Czar Nicholas II.”

Today, the tactic of disguising your intent under the veil of well-curated, manipulative communication is not just a Russian ploy but leveraged by intelligence agencies globally. “It is not that only Russians are using this, intelligence agencies all across the world use, what is called as 'active measures' or psychological operations to force their will on the enemy,” he said.

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But Russia’s forte in the tactic is distinct. “However, the Russian strategic maskirovka concept attempts to pre-emptively manipulate the decision-making process of the enemy and nudge it towards desired outcomes. By using the theory of 'reflexive control' the enemy is manipulated into taking decisions which have been pre-decided by the manipulator. Such 'information confrontation' is used to win over global public opinion and also galvanize domestic population by using strategic misdirection,” Mr Singh explains.