Russians Offer Bounty for First F-16 To Be Downed in Ukraine

Russian companies are offering cash prizes for the destruction of F-16 Fighting Falcon jets, incentivizing troops to take out the Western aircraft that will soon be appearing over Ukraine's skies.

The news was first posted to the Telegram channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday.

It cited Ilya Potanin, a director of Russian oil company FORES, who said: "There will be rewards for the destruction of F-15 and F-16 combat aircraft. The reward for the first will be 15 million rubles."

15 million rubles is equal to around $170,000.

The defense ministry said that monetary rewards of 500,000 rubles had also been offered for the destruction of NATO tanks in Avdiivka, a city in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.

An attached video showed Russian servicemembers receiving the rewards, and shaking the hands of their superior officers.

Alexander Kots, a Russian journalist and correspondent for Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, lauded the incentive program.

"A serviceman of the Russian Aerospace Forces must receive at least some benefit from the fabulous generosity of the Western curators of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Kots said. "F-16 fighters should be looked at as fat, tasty prey, and not as an unknown spaceship that will fly in and kill everyone."

Ukraine has been clamoring for deliveries of the fighter aircraft, developed by Virginia-based defense contractor General Dynamics, throughout the war.

In August 2023, Denmark and the Netherlands promised to provide Ukraine with around 60 American-made F-16s.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that these F-16s were already making their way to Ukraine.

Norway and Belgium have made similar pledges for 40 more jets.

Greece was the latest country to promise a shipment, and has reportedly agreed to sell 32 of its outdated F-16s to the U.S., who will refurbish the fighter jets before sending them to the front lines.

However, Moscow has responded poorly to the West's generosity.

In May, after Belgium announced that it would be sending the fighter jets to Kyiv, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the country would consider this a "signal action" by NATO "in the nuclear sphere."

Despite this backing, Zelensky warned that the number of F-16s being sent to Ukraine would be insufficient to compete with the Russian Air Force.

"The decision to transfer F-16s to Ukraine was strategic, but their number was not strategic," Zelensky said at a conference in Kyiv on Monday.

The Institute for the Study of War has also claimed that, though the country may receive a sufficient supply of the aircraft, it will struggle to train enough pilots to field a capable F-16 fleet.

In May, the Ukrainian Air force announced that its pilots were training to fly F-16s at facilities across Europe and the United States.

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