Ukraine turns real-life kills into video game thrills for drone pilots

Kyiv says the Army of Drones Bonus system, in which points may be redeemed for weapons, is the first of its kind anywhere. 

May 31, 2026 

EDT Today at 5:00 a.m. EDT 7 min

Destroyed Russian military equipment, missile parts and damaged vehicles in St. Michael's Square in Kyiv on April 24. (Oksana Parafeniuk/For The Washington Post)

By David L. Ster, The Washington Post 

KYIV — The attack drone spots the Russian soldier in a field in eastern Ukraine and swoops in. Only when it’s nearly upon him does he see it. The onboard camera, sending video back to the remote pilot in real time, captures his panic. He throws his hands above his head and begins to run. The video cuts out.

Then a second video, shot from a surveillance drone: The soldier’s body lies in the field, motionless. The drone zooms in to show his apparently lifeless face.

In the years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both sides have routinely posted clips of their enemies’ dismemberment or death — gruesome, graphic visual documents of the war’s brutality.

But these videos weren’t headed for social media. Instead, they were submitted to the Ukrainian government as entries in a competition among frontline drone pilots, with points and prizes for high scorers — a literal first-person shooter in the increasing video gamification of war.

Ukrainian officials say the Army of Drones Bonus system, or ePoints, is the only program of its kind in the world. Units earn points for each Russian soldier they incapacitate or kill and each weapon, vehicle or piece of military equipment they destroy. Points may be redeemed in an online government marketplace for more drones, with which to target more Russian forces.

“The program’s philosophy is simple,” said Andrii Hrytseniuk, CEO of Brave1, the government agency that came up with the competition. “The more you destroy, the more you receive.”

The panicked soldier was killed in April by the Spartan Brigade, an assault unit within Ukraine’s National Guard. To win points, each submission to the program is to be confirmed by at least two supporting videos. (The Washington Post could not independently verify the accuracy of the brigade’s videos.) 

The point values for each type of target are classified. But the soldier appeared to be an infantryman — worth 12 points, Mykhailo Fedorov, who is now defense minister, wrote on social media last year.

Lately, the game has been especially deadly. Last month, Ukrainian drones incapacitated or killed more than 35,200 Russian troops, according to defense officials here, the bloodiest toll in at least several months. It was the fifth straight month, Federov said, that Moscow lost more troops than it can mobilize, Fedorov said earlier this month.

The carnage can be attributed in part to Moscow’s meat-grinder tactics — throwing masses of troops at Ukrainian positions in hopes of wearing them down or overwhelming them. Russian losses tend to spike in the fall and winter, when there is less natural cover to hide troops.

But it’s also a result of a decision by Ukrainian officials to target Russian soldiers specifically. In the fall, they doubled the number of points awarded for gravely wounding or killing a soldier.

New targets and points are added regularly. Snipers and smaller air defense units such as mobile fire crews are now on the list; enemy drone pilots are now worth twice as much as infantrymen.

“This shift was dictated by the battlefield itself,” Hrytseniuk said. “Russian forces began pulling their equipment as far as possible away from the line of contact, because it was being destroyed very quickly by our drones.

“Instead, they increasingly relied on infiltration tactics and the use of small infantry groups.”

It’s also evidence of how drones — unmanned air, ground and sea attack systems — have transformed the war.

Ukraine has become a world leader in this deadly new form of fighting — and it hopes to trade technology and strategic insight for military support and security guarantees.

The field is evolving rapidly. Ukrainian forces took a Russian position using “exclusively … unmanned platforms — ground systems and drones,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told defense industry workers last month. “The occupiers surrendered, and the operation was carried out without infantry and without losses on our side.”

Zelensky didn’t provide a location or date for the action, so it could not be independently verified.  He also didn’t say whether Ukrainian forces subsequently held the position. [JB -- I've discovered that this portion of my entry has been emphasized by a stronger image that I did not produce here.]

Russian forces have also ramped up drone strikes. As casualties have mounted on both sides, the no-man’s-land along the front line, called the “gray zone” or “kill zone” by officials and analysts, has widened to 18 to 24 miles.

The sides’ drone capabilities are at “relative parity at the tactical level,” according to Michael Kofman, a military analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Most of the fight is not between infantry or soldiers at all on the ground,” he told the “War on the Rocks” podcast last month. “It is about the drone units of one side — their fire support, their artillery — but particularly their drone units being able to displace the drone units of the other side.”

Ukraine is attempting to win a war of attrition. In January, Zelensky said the “optimal level” of Russian losses was about 50,000 per month — a volume, he said, that would “ensure a level of destruction [that would] exceed the number of reinforcements they can send.”

“The task of the ministry of defense of Ukraine, the task of our army, of all the defense and security forces of Ukraine, is to guarantee precisely such a level,” Zelensky said. “This can be achieved. First and foremost, through drones, unquestionably, of all types.”

Ukraine’s casualty reports can be challenging to parse, according to Emil Kastehelmi of the Black Bird Group, a military analysis organization based in Finland. They don’t distinguish between the wounded and the dead, and it’s unclear whether at least some of the wounded are eventually able to return to the battlefield.

But while “it’s difficult to confirm exactly” what the Russian losses are, Kastehelmi said, the trend is “in the right direction.” 

And they’ve had a significant impact on the enemy, analysts say.

“Russian forces can’t generate reserves with this rate of losses and may struggle to maintain the pace of combat operations this year,” Kofman told The Post. That math has led the Kremlin “to prioritize replacement and postpone force expansion.”

Franz-Stefan Gady, an analyst in Vienna with the Center for a New American Security, cautioned perspective. While it’s “a reasonable estimate to assume that they have been losing more men than they are recruiting,” he said, “Russia is not going to run out of manpower.” 

 

“While not substantially expanding,” he said, Russian forces are “also not significantly shrinking in this conflict.”

After Russian gains last year, Ukraine has halted invading forces in their tracks in several locations. “The Russian offensive momentum has clearly diminished compared to late 2025,” Black Bird Group wrote on social media.

Russian troops have launched a spring offensive and are gaining ground in some areas, the analysts wrote, but not enough to offset Ukrainian advances. “Despite mechanized attack attempts, the continuing Russian offensive attempts are so far struggling to make significant gains and create momentum.”

“Just killing Russian infantry,” Kofman said, won’t be enough to win the war.

“Ukraine is now working to restore superiority in drone employment, fixing coordination between drone brigades and corps to stabilize the front line, and most importantly expanding strikes to control operational depth.” Anastacia Galouchka and Serhii Korolchuk contributed to this report.

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The comments reflect a strong sentiment against Donald Trump's actions regarding Ukraine, criticizing his decision to cut off support and expressing disappointment in his leadership. Many commenters express admiration for Ukraine's resilience and strategic use of drones in their defense against Russian aggression. There is a mix of support for Ukraine's tactics and concern over the moral implications of gamifying warfare, with some drawing parallels to historical and fictional contexts. Overall, the comments convey a blend of support for Ukraine and criticism of both Trump and Russia.