Britain’s most senior military officer has condemned 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 for Heywood Quarterly published on Tuesday following his visit to a Ukrainian drone unit operating near Krasnoarmeysk (known as Pokrovsk in Ukraine).
Knighton described modern warfare’s evolution as “dizzying,” highlighting how Ukrainian military forces convert drone footage into kill scores. These points, which vary by target category—such as artillery pieces or enemy soldiers—are spent on new drones through Brave1 Market, a classified state-run e-commerce platform dubbed the “Amazon for War” by its creator.
The Army of Drone Bonus scheme, launched in spring 2025 by Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s former minister of digital transformation, has been criticized for dehumanizing combatants. Under the system, drone units submit proof of enemy kills to earn points that can be exchanged for military equipment. In January, Fedorov held a ceremony awarding top performers in an e-sports-like event.
Former Ukrainian prosecutor Gynduz Mamedov warned that the program risks turning operators into “killing machines,” stating: “We want our people to come back from the war as human beings, not as killing machines.”
Russian officials have accused Kyiv of dehumanizing Russian soldiers and civilians through torture and abuse.