Moscow is reportedly offering cash rewards for mobilized soldiers who destroy or capture Ukrainian military equipment, Newsweek reported Tuesday.
Rewards were listed on the Russian Defense Ministry's Zvezda TV channel, including 300,000 rubles ($4,980) for a destroyed Ukrainian plane, 200,000 rubles ($3,320) for a helicopter, 100,000 rubles ($1,660) for a tank, and 50,000 rubles ($830) each for drones, armored personnel carriers, combat vehicles, and missile systems.
In addition, the channel reported that some of the most successful servicemen will also be paid up to 100,000 rubles for the destruction of enemy manpower and other achievements during battle.
The new cash reward incentive "is very motivating for the fighters," according to Zvezda and comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month said he would give each mobilized soldier 195,000 rubles ($3,237) per month, apparently in response to reports of poor morale among the troops and complaints about delays in receiving their salaries.
The updated monetary rewards also comes as the Russian army has reportedly suffered huge losses in military equipment, according to Newsweek.
The UK Ministry of Defense said earlier this month that Russian forces were losing more than 40 armored vehicles a day in the middle of last month, approximately the equivalent of an entire battalion's worth of equipment.
Russia has also been forced to acquire at least 100 additional tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from Belarusian stocks to at least partially replenish the lost equipment.
This comes as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently admitted to reporters that there are issues with equipment for the hundreds of thousands of men being sent to fight in Ukraine and that a council created by Putin during the war is trying to solve these problems.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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