Hand Over Tanks To Ukraine: Russian Soldiers Given 10 Thousand US Dollars And Promised To Become Citizens

Illustration of a Russian tank. (Source: Russian Ministry of Defense/Evgeny Polovodov/Dmitry Gutov)

JAKARTA - Ukraine has promised a reward of 10.000 US dollars and citizenship for Russian soldiers who hand over tanks to their military, while a higher nominal is offered for fighter jets and military helicopters.

Russian soldiers handed over a tank to Ukrainian military forces in exchange for $10.000, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said on Tuesday.

According to Viktor Andrusiv, a member of the Russian troops, whom he identified as 'Misha' short for Mikhail, voluntarily handed over an operational main battle tank to the Ukrainian military.

Andrusiv explained that Misha had called the Ukrainian Interior Ministry a few days ago to discuss the offer, which was then forwarded to the head of the Intelligence Directorate at the Defense Ministry.

Furthermore, the Russian soldier was then given a rendezvous point where he was detained on arrival by special forces.

"Apparently he was left alone by the tank crew, the rest fled home. He saw there was no point in fighting. He could not go home because his commander said he would shoot him and wrote it as a combat loss," Andrusiv wrote in a Facebook post, quoted from Daily Sabah, March 23.

"Misha said there was almost nothing that could be done, the command of the troops was chaotic and practically non-existent. The demoralization was enormous," he explained.

"Now the soldier has accepted comfortable conditions of detention. He will also receive $10,000 after the war ends and the opportunity to apply for citizenship," Andrusiv added.

Separately, about $1 million have been promised to those who fly Russian fighter jets to the Ukrainian army, as well as $500.000 for helicopters, said Yuri Gusev, CEO of Ukraine's central state military company.

In his Facebook post, Gusev said the offer was open to everyone ready to support the Ukrainian army, asking users to spread the message through social media.