The BBC reports:
Kill Russian soldiers, win points: Is Ukraine's new drone scheme gamifying war?
Under a scheme first trialled last year and dubbed "Army of Drones: Bonus" (also known as "e-points"), units can earn points for each Russian soldier killed or piece of equipment destroyed.
And like a killstreak in Call of Duty, or a 1970s TV game show, points mean prizes.
This obviously came as rather a surprise to Richard Knighton, the UK chief of the Defence Staff:
“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.”
https://ussanews.com/2026/08/09/ukraines-gamification-of-killing-is-macabre-uk-defense-chief
Another of Ukraine's military 'innovations' that NATO will no doubt want to replicate.
One assumes that the points go up if one kills soldiers from 'elite' forces like the SAS or the Foreign Legion.
The gamification of killing is really just the natural evolution of pilot or sniper 'kill' tallies so it's not really that surprising.
The online drone store is quite the thing though.
Points for kills. Amazon for war. To some ears, it might all sound brutal, even callous.
Of course not. It's all about the data right?
But this is war and Ukraine is determined to hold on. By fighting as effectively, and efficiently as it can.
One can only imagine the outcry if it was Russia was discovered to be using a similar system to earn points for killing Ukrainians and foreign mercenaries.