How Russian Snipers Are Being Fooled by Farmers' Pickup Trucks From UK

Sep 21, 2023

Battered farm trucks that, up until now, most likely carried manure and building equipment across the British countryside are being converted into valuable weapons of war in Ukraine.

Ivan Oleksii is a 25-year-old esports analyst originally from Kherson, Ukraine. Still working in the gaming industry, he also works on the team behind Car4ukraine, an organization launched in March that refits civilian pick-up trucks into military-grade fighting vehicles.

The Ukrainian purchases the trucks secondhand from around Europe and the military uses them to fight Russian soldiers during Putin's ongoing invasion. Oleksii and his team crowdfund all the money used to buy the trucks.

He told Insider Car4ukraine has received approximately 100 vehicles from the UK. Oleksii said that most trucks had only been used for farm work before their transformation.

British trucks come in many models and makes, but they all have one thing in common: the driver's seat is on the right-hand side.

This slight difference to other trucks and vehicles on the front line has saved the lives of many Ukrainian soldiers, Oleksii told Insider. According to Oleksii, Russian snipers mistakenly aimed for the passenger seat, thinking they're shooting at the drivers.

Sometimes, Oleksii said, the drivers put dummies in the passenger seat to further cement the decoy.

The donation-reliant project also prizes British farming vehicles because they can be purchased cheaply.

"They come from a farm, that means they might have some scratches, they might smell bad, but that doesn't matter. It means they will already cost less," Oleksii told Insider.

Car4ukraine sources secondhand four-wheel drive diesel trucks with 2.0-liter engines from across Europe. The favored models include the Toyota Hilux and Tundra, the Mitsubishi L200, the Ford Ranger, the Nissan Navara and KingCab, the Isuzu D-Max, the Маzda BT-50 and Mazda B2500, and the Jeep Gladiator. These trucks usually cost €5,500, or roughly $5,800.

But robust British farm trucks, often with more than 100,000 miles on the clock, can be bought for as little as $2,000. A Car4ukraine team member told the Telegraph some farmers hand over the keys for as little as £1 when they hear about the final destination of their trucks.

Car4ukraine has raised enough money to deliver 146 refitted trucks offering fast-moving firepower to troops, with another 36 on the way.

Upon arrival in Ukraine, volunteer mechanics Car4ukraine recruits reinforce the bodies of the cars with steel plates to protect passengers from Russian mortar and shelling. They then add stands to the back of the trucks to accommodate machine guns, Javelins, NLAWs, and Stinger anti-tank weapons.

As the war against Russia's invasion rages into its tenth month, the Ukrainian military is continuously using Car4ukraine vehicles to battle enemy troops, transport injured civilians and soldiers to safety, and even shoot down Russian missiles.

Speaking to Insider over a video call, Oleksii described a series of texts he received from a soldier driving one of his vehicles.

"A couple of days ago, we just received images of a cruise missile sent on Monday by Russia, but it was taken down by the machine gun from one of our trucks."

The 17-person team at Car4ukraine is part of the country's civilian effort to defeat Putin's forces, often with a makeshift arsenal to fight its heavily armed neighbor.

The little things, or the little people, are the ones that can make a difference against Russia's "huge stupid army," Oleksii told Insider.

"And with all of those crowdfunded ideas of how to improve every single aspect of the war, we're going to win," he said.