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On the front lines, Russian soldiers pay officers to stay alive
The war against Ukraine has created a corrupt economy of blood money
Apr 1st 2026|Altai and Luhansk|5 min read
The newly built one-bedroom flat is nicely decorated, with parquet floors, an aquarium, a shower cabin and a full kitchen. The downside is the location: underground in the trenches near Baihavka, a village in the occupied region of Luhansk. The apartment is home to the commander of the local Russian army unit. Maxim, a deserter who helped to build it, says the commander did not spend a kopek. Not only was the labour free, but soldiers paid for the materials, appliances and paint.
Russian soldiers must also buy officers alcohol. “They have four korporativy [office parties] a week,” says Sergei, who bribed his way into a rear position as a cook. He works from 5am to 11pm, paying over half his salary to a commander for the privilege.
Interviews with a dozen contract soldiers in locations including the Belgorod region, Luhansk and Donetsk reveal a system of extortion and punishment. Officers see their soldiers not just as grunts but as a source of enrichment. Corruption and slave labour have long been features of the Russian and Soviet armies: professional officers control the means of destruction, while recruits serve as cannon fodder in war or free labour in peacetime.
Russia’s recruitment drive for its war in Ukraine has poured blood and money into the system, resulting in a vast battlefield economy. Soldiers describe the front lines as a marketplace where everything has a price: drones, medals, home leave and life itself. To back up their claims, they show screenshots of bank transfers, complaints to military prosecutors, demands for money and orders to take part in assaults.
Maxim, a 26-year-old from the city of Krasnodar, signed his contract in August 2024 in Moscow, where bonuses were higher. He supplies various reasons: government propaganda, the death of his stepfather in the war. “Something just snapped in my head,” he says. “I didn’t even know the contract was indefinite.” It probably helped that he had been arrested with amphetamines in his pocket and given the option of enlisting to avoid prosecution. He got a bonus of 2.5m roubles ($30,000) and was sent without training to the Luhansk region, where he was paid 200,000 roubles a month until he deserted in January 2026. Of the 8m roubles he got in total, he says 6m went in equipment and bribes.
Russia’s army provides gear to elite airborne and special-forces units, but infantry must buy their own. Since 2023 Wildberries and Ozon, the main Russian online retailers, have been available in the occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. “If you don’t want to spend money on a good pair of boots and a decent body-armour vest, you go into assault wearing trainers,” says Maxim.
The collections begin under the pretext of raising money for drones, equipment or food, says Anton, an assault trooper. But if you pay once, “you’ll pay for ever so they don’t send you to the meat grinder.” Ukraine’s wall of drones has created a kill zone at least 20km deep, rendering mass assaults suicidal. It has also created an economy of life and death.
Making their own luck
Maxim says his commander welcomed new recruits by telling them he had buried 12 companies and they would be the 13th. “He said we were cannon fodder and only 5% of soldiers survive assaults.” The next day he explained that survival was not a matter of luck, but of ability to pay. Maxim and Sergei, another soldier, each paid 1m roubles to be transferred to the rear, plus another 100,000-150,000 roubles a month.
Some commanders requisition troops’ bank cards and PIN codes before sending them into an assault. Ilya, another deserter, says a staff officer collects them for safekeeping. The dead are declared missing, and commanders withdraw the money they earned from their bank accounts at ATMs in Donetsk and Luhansk. There is a rich trade in medical documents declaring soldiers unfit for combat. Getting wounded is not free either. “I paid 100,000 for leave after a wound,” says Anton. “To get discharged they ask for a million.”
Soldiers who refuse to pay may be thrown into dug-out pits for torture. Andrey Bykov refused to hand over 2m roubles he received as compensation for being wounded to his commanders, who used the call signs Kemer and Dudka. According to his mother, he was first handcuffed and beaten for several days. Later he was tied to a tree and shot. Soldiers ordered by their commanders to kill their own comrades call it “zeroing out”.
Soldiers say “refuseniks” can be zeroed out by shooting them, tying them to trees to freeze, denying them medical care after beatings or having drone operators kill them on the battlefield. Verstka, an independent Russian news site, confirmed the identities of at least 100 commanders who either ordered or carried out such killings.
“Will these bastards ever be punished?” asks Elena, a 39-year-old from the Altai region in Russia’s north-east. In February 2025 she buried her son, who had served in Kemer’s regiment. He had paid 100,000 roubles “for the needs of the regiment” and was reported as having died on a combat mission. Last summer Elena’s husband, who was serving in the same unit, deserted and recorded several videos about extortion schemes. He filed a complaint with military prosecutors saying Kemer had taken 2m roubles from him. But shortly before the new year he was found by military police and sent back to Kemer’s unit. On January 11th, Elena says, he was tied to a tree and killed.■
俄羅斯士兵在前線付錢給軍官以求活命
這場對抗烏克蘭的戰爭創造了一個腐敗的血錢經濟
第一部分：前線的「豪華」地堡與剝削
2026年4月1日 | 阿爾泰與盧干斯克 | 5分鐘閱讀時間
這間新落成的一房一廳公寓裝飾精美，鋪著魚骨木地板，有魚缸、淋浴房和設備齊全的廚房。唯一缺點是地點：位於盧干斯克（Luhansk）佔領區白哈夫卡村（Baihavka）附近的戰壕地底下。這間公寓是當地俄軍部隊指揮官的家。協助建造這間公寓的逃兵馬克沁（Maxim）說，指揮官一分錢都沒花。不僅勞動力是免費的，士兵們還支付了建材、家電和油漆的費用。
俄羅斯士兵還必須為軍官購買酒類。曾透過賄賂獲得「廚師」後方職位的謝爾蓋（Sergei）說：「他們每週舉辦四次公司派對（korporativy）。」他從凌晨 5 點工作到晚上 11 點，並將超過一半的薪水交給指揮官，以換取這個特權。
第二部分：制度化的勒索與懲罰
對貝爾哥羅德（Belgorod）、盧干斯克和頓內茨克（Donetsk）等地區的十幾名合約兵進行的採訪揭露了一個勒索與懲罰系統。軍官不僅將士兵視為底層小兵（grunts），更將其視為發財的來源。腐敗和奴隸勞動長期以來一直是俄羅斯和蘇聯軍隊的特徵：職業軍官控制著毀滅手段，而招募的新兵在戰爭中充當炮灰（cannon fodder），或在和平時期充當免費勞動力。
俄羅斯為烏克蘭戰爭發起的徵兵行動為這個系統注入了鮮血與金錢，導致了一個巨大的戰場經濟。士兵們將前線描述為一個「萬物皆有價」的市場：無人機、獎章、返鄉假，乃至生命本身。為了支持他們的說法，他們展示了銀行轉帳截圖、向軍事檢察官提出的投訴、要錢的要求以及參與突擊的命令。
第三部分：高額賄賂與物資自理
來自克拉斯諾達爾（Krasnodar）的 26 歲青年馬克沁，於 2024 年 8 月在獎金較高的莫斯科簽署了合約。他給出了各種理由：政府宣傳、繼父在戰爭中去世。他說：「我腦袋裡有些東西斷掉了。我甚至不知道合約是無限期的。」另一個推動因素可能是他因口袋藏有安非他命被捕，並獲得了透過參軍來避免起訴的選擇。他獲得了 250 萬盧布（3 萬美元 (1 俄羅斯盧布 等於
0.41 新臺幣 )的獎金，並在未經訓練的情況下被派往盧干斯克地區，在那裡他每個月領取 20 萬盧布的薪水，直到 2026 年 1 月逃亡。在他總共獲得的 800 萬盧布中，他說有 600 萬盧布花在了裝備和賄賂上。
俄羅斯軍隊為精銳的空降兵和特種部隊提供裝備，但步兵必須自備。自 2023 年以來，俄羅斯主要電商 Wildberries 和 Ozon 已在頓內茨克、盧干斯克、扎波羅熱和赫爾松等佔領區提供服務。馬克沁說：「如果你不想花錢買一雙好的靴子和體面的防彈背心，你就得穿著運動鞋去衝鋒。」
第四部分：生存的代價
一名突擊隊員安東（Anton）表示，募款通常以籌集無人機、設備或食物的錢為藉口開始。但如果你付了一次錢，「你就得永遠付下去，這樣他們才不會把你送進肉靶機（meat grinder）。」烏克蘭的無人機牆已創造了一個至少 20 公里深的殺傷區，使得大規模突擊等同於自殺。這也創造了一種生與死的經濟。
馬克沁說，他的指揮官迎接新兵時告訴他們，他已經埋葬了 12 個連，他們將是第 13 個。「他說我們是炮灰，只有 5% 的士兵能在突擊中倖存。」隔天他解釋說，生存不是運氣問題，而是支付能力的問題。馬克沁和另一名士兵謝爾蓋各付了 100 萬盧布被調往後方，此外每個月還要再付 10 萬至 15 萬盧布。
第五部分：「清零」與殘酷處決
一些指揮官在將部隊送入突擊前，會徵用士兵的銀行卡和 PIN 碼。另一名逃兵伊利亞（Ilya）說，一名幕僚軍官會收集這些卡片以便「安全保管」。死者被宣佈為失蹤，而指揮官則在頓內茨克和盧干斯克的 ATM 機提取他們賺來的錢。此外，宣佈士兵不適合戰鬥的醫療文件交易也非常興旺。受傷也不是免費的。安東說：「我為了傷後的休假付了 10 萬盧布，如果要退伍，他們要價 100 萬。」
拒絕付錢的士兵可能會被關進地坑受審。安德烈·比科夫（Andrey Bykov）拒絕將他因受傷獲得的 200 萬盧布補償金交給代號為 Kemer 和 Dudka 的指揮官。據他母親稱，他先是被戴上手銬並毆打數日，後來被綁在樹上射殺。士兵被指揮官命令殺死自己的戰友，稱之為「清零」（zeroing out）。
士兵們說，「拒絕者」（refuseniks）可以透過槍殺、綁在樹上凍死、毆打後拒絕提供醫療護理，或讓無人機操作員在戰場上將其殺死來進行「清零」。獨立俄羅斯新聞網站 Verstka 證實了至少 100 名下令或執行此類殺戮的指揮官身份。
「這些混蛋會受到懲罰嗎？」來自俄羅斯東北部阿爾泰地區 39 歲的埃琳娜（Elena）問道。2025 年 2 月，她埋葬了在 Kemer 團服役的兒子。他曾為「團裡的需要」支付了 10 萬盧布，並被報告死於一次戰鬥任務。去年夏天，埃琳娜在同一單位服役的丈夫逃亡，並錄製了幾段關於勒索計劃的影片。他向軍事檢察官提出投訴，稱 Kemer 從他那裡拿走了 200 萬盧布。但在新年前夕，他被軍警找到並送回 Kemer 的單位。埃琳娜說，1 月 11 日，他被綁在樹上殺害。■
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