对白俄罗斯语区、卢甘斯克与顿涅茨克地区十余名合同兵的采访显示，军官与指挥官把部队成员当作收入来源而非单纯战斗者。该报道记录了“地下军官套间”式的经济剥削：指挥官住进新建一居室，工人不花一戈比，士兵却掏钱买材料、家电和油漆，且每周需为军官买四次酒会费用，有士兵称每月工作5点至23点后仍要交出半数以上薪水。
26岁新兵马克西姆的经历显示资金流向具有高度系统性：他2024年8月在莫斯科签约拿到250万卢布入伍奖金，月薪20万，直到2026年1月共得800万卢布，但其中600万用于装备、转移与行贿，仅剩约200万可见所得。前线被描述为“买卖市场”：步兵须自购靴子与防弹衣，发动突击前“募捐”用于无人机和补给、后方调动费各要100万，再加每月10万至15万，指挥官还宣称突击仅5%能活下；乌克兰无人机已形成至少20公里深杀伤带，使这种“付费换生还”逻辑持续强化。
证词还指向更致命的掠夺链条：不少单位在攻前征集银行卡与PIN，战死或“失踪”后立刻提取账户资金，并通过医疗证明买卖安排免战身份；受伤者请假要10万，办理退役可能再要100万，拒绝缴费者可能被上树冻死、毒打或遭击毙，被称为“归零”。独立媒体Verstka核实至少100名指挥官参与此类处决，39岁Elena的儿子先后缴纳10万卢布“营区公需款”后被报告阵亡，丈夫因检举上级被勒索200万又被送回原部队，随后于1月11日被绑树枪决。
Interviews with contract soldiers in Belgorod, Luhansk, and Donetsk describe a coercive wartime economy where officers and commanders treat personnel as revenue streams rather than just soldiers. In one reported unit, a newly built one-bedroom apartment was provided to the commander through free deserter labor, while soldiers paid for materials, appliances, and paint, and also funded four weekly “korporativy” gatherings—one recruit says he paid away more than half his salary after a 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. shift.
A 26-year-old deserter, Maxim, shows the scale of extraction: he signed in August 2024 and got a 2.5m-ruble joining bonus plus 200,000 roubles a month, totaling 8m, but claims 6m went to equipment and bribes, leaving only about 2m effectively retained. On the front, soldiers describe a payment market for survival—buying their own boots and armor, repeated “collections” for drones or assaults, a 1m-rouble fee to transfer to rear positions plus 100,000-150,000 monthly, a commander claiming only 5% survive assaults, and a 20km-deep drone kill zone that makes mass attacks financially and physically punitive.
Testimonies further report card-and-PIN confiscation before attacks, withdrawal of soldiers’ funds after being declared missing, and a trade in false medical paperwork to avoid combat, while 100,000 roubles may buy leave and 1m a discharge after a wound. Refusal is punished through torture and “zeroing out” tactics such as tying men to trees and shooting them; independent outlet Verstka says at least 100 commanders were linked to such killings, including Elena’s husband and son in one case where alleged payments ranged from 100,000 to 2m roubles before one was reported dead and the other was allegedly returned and killed on January 11.
Source: On the front lines, Russian soldiers pay officers to stay alive
Subtitle: The war against Ukraine has created a corrupt economy of blood money
Dateline: 4月 02, 2026 12:31 上午 | Altai and Luhansk