Ukraine’s military units are competing with each other by launching deadly drone attacks to earn points that can be used to buy more weapons.
The video game-style rewards system is proving to be very popular, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister said, with hundreds of units participating. Launched a year ago, it is now being expanded to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations, according to reports.
“It’s become truly popular among units,” deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov told The Guardian. “All the defence forces know about this and there’s competition for the points, for getting these drones, electronic warfare systems and other things to help them in warfighting.
“The more infantry you kill, the more drones you get to kill more infantry. This is becoming kind of a self-reinforcing cycle.”
Soldiers who launch successful strikes win points that can be exchanged to buy more weapons in an “Amazon-for-war” online shop called Brave1, including drones and autonomous vehicles.
At least 400 drone units are using the “Army of Drones Bonus System”, which killed or wounded 18,000 Russian soldiers in September, the newspaper reported. This was double the number from last October, after Ukraine’s government doubled the rewards for killing Russian infantry from six to 12 points.
Drones and autonomous vehicles can be bought from the online marketplace with “e-points”, which are awarded to units for the verified destruction of enemy equipment or personnel.
A Kolibri 7 UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was the cheapest drone that could be bought with points, going for 13,410 Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH), the equivalent of £242.87. The most expensive, the MACUVA BpAK, was on sale for 41,506,466 UAH, or approximately £751,724.73.
Mr Fedorov said that the decision to apply a points-based system to Russian casualties was one of many ways Ukraine was trying to be “more effective”.
“We’re at war for four years in a row, and it is hard,” he said. “We’re just finding ways to be more effective. We’re thinking of this as just part of our everyday job. There’s little to no emotional reflection here. It feels like just technical work.
“Because if you don’t stop the enemy, he will kill your servicemen and after the servicemen are dead, he’s going to come to a city and he’s going to conquer, raze and kill civilians.”
He warned that Russia appears to be developing its own gamified system, citing Ukrainian intelligence sources.
Drones have become a key weapon for both Kyiv and Moscow. Russia has drastically increased its drone strikes this year; the summer saw an increase in frequency of intense overnight strikes in a move experts told The Independent was meant to induce panic in Ukraine’s population.
Kyiv faced a wave of 818 drones and missiles in an overnight attack on 7 September, one of the largest of the war so far.
Ukraine live: UK sends Storm Shadows after Trump accuses Putin of secret nuke tests
Why Russia is so desperate to win the battle of Pokrovsk and what happens next
Worker trapped for 11 hours under collapsed medieval tower in Rome dies
US medic says Trump’s bluster about peace is more traumatic than horrors of frontline
How Ukraine and Russia are playing a deadly cat and mouse drone war from underground
How British teen Bella Culley’s holiday to Thailand turned into a prison nightmare
