Ukraine’s gamification of killing is ‘macabre’ – UK defense chief

Richard Knighton says Kiev’s points-for-kills bonus scheme targeting Russian soldiers is disturbing Ukraine’s practice of awarding drone operators points for killing Russian soldiers is “macabre” and disturbing, Britain’s most senior military officer, Richard Knighton, has said.Knighton, the UK chief of the Defense Staff, made the remarks in an essay for Heywood Quarterly published on Tuesday, after he visited a Ukrainian drone unit operating near the Donbass city of Krasnoarmeysk (known as Pokrovsk in Ukraine), which was liberated by Russia in December 2025.He described the evolution of modern warfare as “dizzying,” pointing to the Ukrainian military’s use of drone-camera feeds that are analyzed on screens and converted into kill scores. “I suspect, like me, many will find this gamification of killing uncomfortable, even macabre,” Knighton wrote, noting that kills are scored by category of target – from artillery pieces to enemy soldiers – with each carrying a point value that operators can spend on new drones through a marketplace with “the look and feel of any other online store.” The scheme, known as the Army of Drone Bonus, was launched in spring 2025 by Mikhail Fedorov, the m...