Cash rewards for shooting down American F-16 fighter jets? That's a real headline out of the Ukraine war...
"A Russian company awarded a dozen servicemen a total of 15 million rubles ($190,000) for destroying U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine," the Amsterdam-based Moscow Times reports. And they are even publish photos of the 'award ceremony'.
"Fores, a Yekaterinburg-based fracking components supplier, said Friday that it handed out the cash prizes to troops at a location near the Russian-Ukrainian border," MT continued. "Photos shared from the ceremony showed the soldiers’ faces blurred."
Russian state sources have reported on at least three confirmed downed Western-supplied F-16s so far in the 3+years-long war, and the Kremlin has called the aircraft "sitting ducks".
In some instances, Ukraine has claimed that jets have simply crashed while operating in intense battle environs, only to have the Russian defense ministry then assert back that they were shot down.
A second US-donated F-16 went down down over Ukraine last December, after prior to that there was a reported incident last August. Another was downed more recently. Conflicting reports have at times even mentioned a 'friendly fire' incident as the potential cause of one downing.
Fores has boasted that it's the first company to ever offer huge financial payouts for the destruction of Western military equipment. It had actually paid out rewards for prior successful attacks on Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks.
According to some background via TASS:
Earlier, Fores Director General Sergey Shmotyev said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that his company would will pay a bonus of 15 million rubles for the first F-16 fighter jet that could be shot down in Ukraine. In December, the businessman confirmed his intentions to TASS.
Based in the Urals, Fores makes proppants for the oil industry. It has supported the Russian Army since the launch of the special military operation. To date, the company has donated 237.7 million rubles ($3 million) toward the purchase of hardware, communications devices, jamming systems, thermal sights, medicines, and evacuation equipment. It has also purchased more than 500 tons of healthcare products and medicinal drugs for the special military operation zone.
Raining money? Russian soldiers hope so, in a somewhat macabre patriotic game...
It was starting in early 2024, when a European and US training program for Ukrainian fighter pilots was well underway, that Fores began announcing huge cash bounties for downing Ukrainian F-16s.
As for the tank reward program, Fores paid out 5 million rubles (about $65K) for the first take destroyed, starting in 2023, and has continued issuing payouts of 500,000 rubles per vehicle. Several videos have emerged of UK, US, and French battle tanks burning and destroyed.
