Photo by Boris Roessler/picture alliance via Getty Images
- A Russian company said it paid 12 soldiers a combined $195,000 for shooting down an F-16 jet.
- Fores said it presented the soldiers the cash at a ceremony near the Russia-Ukraine border on Thursday.
- Kyiv had long coveted the US-made F-16. It received its first of the jets in 2024.
A Russian oil company said it had awarded a total of 15 million rubles (around $195,000) to Russian soldiers who it credited with downing the first US-made F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine.
In a press release, Fores, a fracking parts manufacturer, said it had presented 12 servicemen with the cash at a ceremony near the Russia-Ukraine border on Thursday.
"Fores fulfilled its earlier promise and paid 15 million rubles to Russian servicemen for destroying the first F-16 fighter jet in the special operation zone," the company said.
The firm announced the bounty system in 2023, promising cash rewards for soldiers who destroyed certain Western-supplied military equipment.
The company said it had so far paid out just over 52 million rubles (around $670,000) for the destruction of the F-16 and an unspecified number of Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had long coveted the F-16 as he sought to bolster Ukraine's air defenses, and Kyiv received its first delivery of the jet in the summer of 2024.
Ukraine's forces have so far lost at least three F-16s in combat, with the General Staff confirming the first loss in August last year.
The F-16 has nevertheless seemingly proved a hit over the battlefield.
Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the US's top general in Europe, told a Senate Armed Services Committee in April that F-16s were flying "every day" in Ukraine and that they had been successful in both air defense and offensive operations.
"They've defeated a large number of cruise missile threats, and they've delivered an awful lot of offensive attacks as well," he said, adding: "Specifically, bombing attacks in the east."
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