Kathrine Frich
The drivers genuinely appeared to be ordinary people
Moving supplies across a war zone is a massive logistical puzzle.
When traditional routes fail, commanders get creative.
Sometimes, that desperation causes the vital boundary between military and civilian life to vanish completely.
Changing the rules
Ukrainian strikes have badly damaged standard Russian supply routes. To solve this growing problem, the invading army is drastically changing how it moves fuel to occupied territories.
According to the independent outlet The Insider cited by Onet, ordinary vehicles are now doing the heavy lifting. A recent video published on the Exilenova+ Telegram channel showed two passenger cars completely packed with gasoline canisters.
The people filming claimed they were driving roughly one ton of fuel from Dagestan straight to the front lines in occupied Tokmak.
A risky commute
Ruslan Leviev founded the analytical group Conflict Intelligence Team. He reviewed the footage and noted that the drivers genuinely appeared to be ordinary people rather than soldiers in disguise.
“Perhaps from a strictly legal perspective, this isn’t a war crime, as the individuals in the footage aren’t soldiers, they appear to be civilians, so they’re not posing as civilians,” Leviev explained.
Still, he warned the trend is highly dangerous. He stated that these actions “could provoke further drone strikes on random civilian passenger cars driving on the roads in the southern occupied territories.”
Vladislav Voloshin serves as a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Forces. He announced that Russian military leaders recently ordered the mass use of civilian transport to move fuel into Crimea.
Hiding in plain sight
Voloshin claims the military is seizing delivery vans and postal trucks to blend in. The vehicles carry large fuel tanks, and commanders explicitly ban the drivers from wearing military uniforms.
“This is another violation of the rules of war,” Voloshin said.
The deception goes even further. The Crimean Wind channel recently shared a photo of a massive military truck cleverly painted to look like an ordinary dump truck.
Leviev pointed out that the truck still carried military plates. “Here, however, we’re dealing with a real case of military equipment being disguised as civilian, which could undoubtedly be considered a war crime,” he noted.
Sources: The Insider, Conflict Intelligence Team, Exilenova+, Ukrainian Defense Forces, Crimean Wind, Onet
