• Ukrainian troops on the front lines can earn up to $10,270 a month based on how much they fight.
• That's nearly 30 times the average salary in the country.
• The bonuses are part of a new push to overhaul Ukraine's pay and contract system.

Ukraine is implementing a new bonus system that rewards frontline troops with cash for feats in battle or carrying out combat missions.

The incentives are part of a salary and contract overhaul announced on June 12, after years of Kyiv struggling with recruitment and reports of absence without leave, or AWOL.

The defense ministry said on Tuesday that the new system would apply to combat missions or tasks from the start of June, with payouts to be received in July.

The highest bonuses vary based on performance, and primarily apply to troops in the most dangerous roles, such as assault infantry, combat medics, and gunners. Each frontline soldier gets a base monthly pay of 20,000 hryvnias, or $446, but could earn up to 460,000 hryvnias, or $10,270, a month based on their service.

The full payout would be nearly 30 times the average salary in Ukraine before the war began; government statistics from January 2022 said the country's average monthly salary was 14,577 hryvnias.

A day at a Ukrainian-held position earns the soldier another 10,000 hryvnias, while each day carrying out more aggressive missions, such as reconnaissance, evacuation, or recapturing friendly territory, nets them 20,000 instead.

The biggest daily bonus is 40,000 hryvnias for each day spent in assault operations that result in a Ukrainian advance. The bonuses don't stack, so a soldier can only earn one per day — whichever is highest.

Then there are bonuses for taking a Russian soldier prisoner, which is 100,000 hryvnias split among all troops involved directly in the capture, and destroying an enemy asset or killing a Russian soldier, which is worth 15,000 hryvnias.

Commanders and their teams can earn an extra 30,000 hryvnias a month for performing combat tasks, and 50,000 hryvnias for running operations from command posts, depending on the time they spent on missions that month.

The grand total of these payments is capped at 460,000 a month, the Ukrainian defense ministry said.

While stationed temporarily in rear areas, troops instead receive a minimum monthly pay of 30,000 hryvnias. Ukrainian soldiers regularly rotate between fighting near or at the front lines and resting in safer towns and strongholds.

Drone pilots' and specialists' salaries are different, with a scale that pays more the closer they are to the front lines, up to a maximum of 120,000 hryvnias. They can also get bonuses of up to 100,000 hryvnias for participating in combat or performing command roles.

The defense ministry said it was also implementing a new system that allows troops who have gone AWOL to return to the military under the best-rated units and immediately receive gear, meals, and clothing.

The measure seeks to fix a loophole that led dissatisfied Ukrainian troops to avoid the bureaucracy of applying for transfers and force a move by going AWOL.

Ukraine's defense ministry has embarked on an aggressive overhaul since January under Mykhailo Fedorov, who was appointed to lead the ministry after a stint as the country's minister for digital transformation.

The 35-year-old has pledged to address many of the systemic issues and gripes that have plagued Ukraine's forces for years, including low morale and lack of command transparency.

"This is only the first stage of the comprehensive transformation of the Defense Forces of Ukraine," the ministry said on June 12.

• A new tax meant for electric vehicles has come back to bite Ukraine's surging ground drone industry.
• Without the 20% VAT, Ukraine could have produced 5,000 more UGVs, an industry association CEO said.
• The tax, introduced in January, threw the local ground drone industry into disarray for months.

An electric vehicle tax that came into force this year inadvertently cost Ukraine thousands of ground drones it needs on the front lines, the CEO of a major defense trade association said.

Had the 20% value-added tax, which went into effect in January, not been introduced, Ukraine's military could likely have bought 5,000 more uncrewed ground vehicles in the first half of 2026, said Ihor Fedirko, the CEO of the Ukrainian Council for Defense Industry.

"We know that our government is procuring 25,000 in the first half of this year. If they could procure 20% more, that's 5,000," Fedirko told Business Insider. "For our armed forces, that's a lot."

The new tax also threw the local ground drone industry and military into disarray at the start of the year, causing contracts to dry up for months and several major manufacturers to nearly go out of business, he added.

Ukrainian lawmakers are now racing to undo the tax, with some politicians saying it's handicapped a key war industry that Kyiv is trying to rapidly expand.

Nina Yuzhanina, a lawmaker for Ukraine's European Solidarity party, said in a statement last week that the EV tax "almost ceased" the supply of ground drones to the military in some areas.

She and 44 other Ukrainian parliamentarians introduced a bill on May 19 aiming to fix the core issue: because uncrewed ground vehicles, or UGVs, are so new, they were lumped together with EVs by the country's trade standards. The new law would define the drones as a separate good, exempting them from the 20% tax.

The bill is set for discussion over the next two weeks, but Fedirko estimates that if the law passes immediately, it would still take about two months for its effects to fully trickle down and restore production.

That comes as Ukraine's defense ministry said it plans to buy a total of 50,000 ground drones by the end of the year. Ukrainian UGVs can cost between $5,000 to $100,000 apiece, depending on the type of system and the gear it's equipped with.

"The exemption would save more than eight to 10 billion hryvnias, which is about $200 million," Fedirko said of the tax's impact on the local industry. "For us, it's a huge number."

How Ukraine began taxing its own war production

This year's VAT on ground drones is unusual for Ukraine. Under martial law, most of the country's war industries aren't subject to any such taxes.

This sort of consumption tax is collected at every step of the supply chain, but is typically eventually passed on to the end consumer — in this case, Ukraine's own military.

Ground drone manufacturers didn't actually have to worry about the tax until recently; Ukraine had been exempting EV duties since 2018.

But that exemption expired on January 1.

Military procurers found that their ground drone budgets needed to be 20% higher, but initially were confused by the new process because defense equipment and weapons are exempt from VAT by default, Fedirko said.

Amid the turmoil, drone makers couldn't find state contracts — the lifeblood for major manufacturers — for three months, he added.

"Three months without procurement, that's crazy. It's impossible to live without it," Fedirko said.

Production chaos while at war

The Ukrainian defense ministry highlighted the bottleneck in April, saying it was working quickly to "unblock" contracts and speed up deliveries.

But local firms had struggled to stay afloat in the meantime. A 20% cut to a firm's budget, in an industry already desperate for financing, can be a killer blow.

The new VAT also adds weeks of bureaucratic delay for an industry at war, with firms having to loop in state tax services and meticulously document the procurement process.

Fedirko said some firms may have had to drop capacity to a third of last year's to stay solvent, with cuts to employees or engineers.

A few tried to reclassify their drones as tanks or armored vehicles, while others sold their UGVs to volunteer organizations such as ComeBackAlive, which supplies military units on an ad hoc basis.

Tencore, the manufacturer of the popular tracked TerMIT drone, said it had to rely on these volunteer organizations when it couldn't find state contracts for five months.

"For UGV manufacturers, the VAT issue was not an accounting detail," the firm told Business Insider. It works with the Ukrainian Robotics Force association, which falls under Fedirko's UCDI umbrella.

A fix six months in the making

It's taken Ukraine this long to address the tax problem because military ground drones were so new that lawmakers had trouble defining them, Fedirko said. European Union commodity rules, on which Ukraine bases its own goods classifications, also don't have clear specifications for these uncrewed systems.

Though ground drone procurement resumed in the spring, manufacturers like Tencore say the months of delay have already cost frontline troops the equipment they need.

"For Ukraine, six months feels like infinity," Fedirko said.

When reached by Business Insider, the defense ministry declined to comment on the parliamentary bill introduced last week, saying it's not allowed to influence its consideration or debate.

However, it said Ukraine's UGV industry has so far grown to over 280 companies, with 550 types of drones for sale.

As the war moves into its fifth year, Ukrainian troops are increasingly relying on these platforms to conduct missions on the front lines, including logistics, evacuations, and attacks on Russian positions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in April that his forces had used ground drones to carry out over 22,000 missions in the first three months of 2026 alone.

• The US Army's Bavaria base hosts over 16,000 troops ready for instant deployment.
• Its origins date back to pre-World War I. Later, it became a major training hub for the German Wehrmacht.
• Today, US troops train in trenches — rain or shine — honing skills for potential conflicts with Russia.

Just a couple of hours north of Munich, the US Army runs its largest training site outside the United States. Once a Nazi artillery training ground, the sprawling base is now home to more than 16,000 troops kept ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Soldiers train in trenches and with armored Stryker combat vehicles to maintain constant combat readiness "so they can answer America's call in an instant," said Hermes Acevedo, who was the command sergeant major and senior enlisted advisor to the garrison commander at US Army Garrison Bavaria when Business Insider's Graham Flanagan visited last April.

That readiness serves as deterrence. From Bavaria, troops can reach the Czech Republic within about an hour and Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, in roughly 18 hours by road. "By us being ready, by us being here in this location, [it] kind of sends a signal," Acevedo said.

He didn't name a specific adversary, but soldiers in the trenches know who they're preparing for.

As Russia's war in Ukraine continues, the US Army's presence in Germany is crucial. These soldiers could be the first ones in the fight, defending NATO's eastern flank.

From Nazi training ground to NATO backbone

US Army Garrison Bavaria's origins date back to pre-World War I, when the Royal Bavarian Army developed a training area for its own artillery forces.

That role expanded under Adolf Hitler, when the Third Reich used the same grounds as a major training hub for the German Wehrmacht — Nazi's unified armed forces.

At the end of World War II, US forces took control of the area. Today, it anchors US and NATO operations in Europe.

The installation spans four main areas, including Tower Barracks and Rose Barracks. It houses the 7th Army Training Command — which sets standards for US Army Europe and Africa — and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, a forward-positioned ground force.

"We're not going to deploy to an incident in Europe," Acevedo said. "We are already here."

Training for a potential war with Russia

Troops can leave their barracks and reach live training ranges in less than two minutes, Acevedo said. Once there, they train in all conditions — snow, rain, heat, and cold — to build what he described as instinctive responses.

"It's all about readiness," Acevedo said.

The base also runs an opposing force, or OPFOR, that mimics enemy tactics. "We're basically supposed to act like Russians," Spc. Aaron Jude said, noting they study the war in Ukraine sometimes through open-source material like social media.

OPFOR units use AK-style rifles and train in trench warfare, reflecting the realities of the conflict.

"That's what's so awesome about this unit," said Staff Sgt. Daniel Johnson, an OPFOR soldier. "Not only are we being able to train to our standards, but we're also training to Russia's standards. Honestly, to me, that's like a really good way to understand our adversaries."

Sensors across the training area collect data, allowing commanders to analyze performance and refine strategy. That constant feedback loop is central to the base's role, allowing it to test equipment and decision-making under pressure.

A self-contained military ecosystem

The installation is designed to support both troops and their families. It includes more than 3,400 housing units, K—12 schools, childcare centers, and recreational facilities. Many families live both on and off base, integrated into nearby communities.

Acevedo said that these support systems help ease one of the biggest challenges for troops arriving from the US: uncertainty.

That environment is part of what keeps the base functioning at scale. Soldiers can focus on training and missions, while families have access to services designed to mirror life in the US.

The result is a well-oiled rapid-response war machine that turns a historically significant site into a modern military hub, readying troops for a hard fight.

Business Insider got exclusive access to see how the US Army's Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment is training for a possible war with Russia.

A group of soldiers known as OPFOR pretends to be the enemy, practicing the same style of trench warfare that has become commonplace in the Russia-Ukraine war.

An Army platoon must traverse mountainous terrain before finding the OPFOR's trench and attacking it.

• A Ukrainian corps has released a video of its troops using exoskeletons on the battlefield.
• Two soldiers can be seen loading artillery shells on a Howitzer with the help of the tech.
• The 7th Air Assault Corps said they reduce physical load by 30% and help troops move faster.

Ukrainian forces say they're testing exoskeletons in battle for the first time, deploying them in logistics and combat positions on the Pokrovsk front.

The 7th Air Assault Corps posted a video on Friday of its 147th Separate Artillery Brigade demonstrating the new tech.

The exoskeletons are designed to be buckled at the waist and legs, with the apparatus wrapping behind the user's back and weaving toward the front of their knees. It also features two actuators at the hip that serve as hinges.

Each exoskeleton, the corps said, is meant to reduce the load on leg muscles by 30%, helping troops move at up to 12 mph for about 10 miles.

Clips showed two soldiers using the exoskeletons to carry and load artillery shells on a French CAESAR self-propelled Howitzer.

"Every day, artillerymen endure heavy physical loads. They carry 15 to 30 shells daily, each weighing 50 kg," said Colonel Vitalii Serdiuk, the corps' deputy commander, in a statement attached to the video.

The exoskeleton appears to be foldable, allowing it to fit inside a briefcase; the corps said the device itself weighs about 4.4 pounds.

Captions on the video said the exoskeletons are equipped with artificial intelligence that adapts in real time to the load on the soldier's legs and spine, allowing them to function in 10 different modes.

The 7th Air Assault Corps said this was the first time that any Ukrainian unit had trialed such technology in combat, and that the exoskeletons it received were test samples.

The US has also been designing its own exoskeletons, such as the Army's SABER, a soft, wearable exosuit that is strapped to the back and around each leg to reduce spinal strain.

Another example is Lockheed Martin's ONYX, a lower-body exoskeleton with knee actuators that wraps around the legs, but it hasn't been made standard-issue for the US military.