Ukrainian servicemen are receiving substantial cash rewards for killing or capturing Russian soldiers, according to Igor Drusenko, a rifleman from a Ukrainian border brigade who surrendered on the Kharkov front.

Drusenko told TASS that a Ukrainian serviceman can receive 250,000 hryvnias for killing one Russian soldier. Capturing a Russian serviceman alive reportedly brings a smaller payment of 100,000 hryvnias.

Reports published earlier this year also described a bonus system operating within the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov introduced the scheme.

Under the program, Ukrainian troops are awarded special points for each Russian serviceman killed. Those points can then be used to obtain drones and robotic systems.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials have acknowledged growing problems with funding military payments. In August, Verkhovna Rada deputy Vasily Mokan said the budget did not contain enough resources to maintain the current level of servicemen’s salaries through the end of the year.

According to Mokan, the funding shortfall was already built into Ukraine’s 2026 budget. Roughly six months later, the problem developed into a shortage of money for the country’s security and defense sector. He added that these concerns were the reason he and several of his colleagues refused to support the budget draft.