Ukraine has passed a law offering up to $1 million to Russian defectors who bring with them a fighter jet or warship.
Smaller amounts would be meted out to defectors with other sought-after equipment. Ukraine leaders aim to use the law — and the money — to capitalize on the widely reported low morale of Russian troops.
Measure 7229 also promises up to $500,000 for helicopters, $100,000 for tanks, and $10,000 for other types of military vehicles, according to the website for Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
A kind of shopping list from the government was posted on Twitter by Euan MacDonald, an editor-at-large for The New Voice of Ukraine.
Besides money, defectors giving up Russian equipment are offered “secrecy, a safe stay in Ukraine and support in obtaining new documents and an exit for a third country.”
Oleksandr Kornienko, first vice speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, said in a statement that the money will be “an additional incentive” for the demoralized “occupiers to lay down their arms.”
