Russian Businesses Offer Bounty for Destroyed Abrams Tanks

Russia quickly offered money to anyone who could destroy the main battle tanks that the US said it would send to Ukraine. Photo by Sgt. Kaden Pitt of the US Army. A group of Russian businesses has offered a reward of 10 million rubles, or about $141,000, to any Russian soldier who destroys a US-made Abrams tank in Ukraine.

Russian actor and director Ivan Okhlobystin said that there would be a reward, according to the Russian news site Military Review. Okhlobystin wrote on his blog, according to Military Review, “With no guile, I hasten to tell you that some representatives of large Russian businesses have given me permission to tell you that they are giving a bonus of 10 million rubles for each Abrams that is destroyed.” ” (Peterson, n.d) (Peterson, n.d.) “Fores, a Russian company that makes ceramic propellants, used to offer a reward of 5 million rubles, or about $70,000, to the first soldier to capture or destroy a US Abrams or a German Leopard 2 battle tank.

Last week, Washington and Berlin said they would send main battle tanks to Ukraine. The two announcements made on Wednesday ended months of indecision and were a big step toward sending weapons from the West to Kyiv. The US will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, which is enough for a whole tank battalion. Germany said it would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv. This opens the door for about a dozen other European countries to send their own Leopard 2 tanks made in Germany to Ukraine. The UK said last week that it would send 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine in two months.

France has also promised to send armoured vehicles to Ukraine, and it is said that the country is thinking about whether or not to also send some of its LeClerc main battle tanks.