“If You Pay, You Stay”: Russian Troops Buy Their Way Off the Front in Zaporizhzhia

Russian soldiers are paying their commanders to avoid participating in combat on the Zaporizhzhia front, according to the partisan movement ATESH, which shared information from its agent within the 247th Air Assault Brigade on December 18.

It appears that a group of soldiers in the brigade have formed a system where they pay 50,000 rubles (approximately $525) in cash to their commanders every month. In exchange, they are kept away from the front lines and assigned to tasks at the headquarters or fake internal assignments.

However, their documents still mark them as “on combat duty,” allowing them to receive full pay and benefits, even though they are not actually involved in the fighting.

On the other hand, those who refuse to pay are sent to the frontlines regardless of their condition—whether injured, suffering from concussions, or having had no rest or rotations.

“If you pay, you stay; if you don’t, you fight,” Commanders declared, according to ATESH.

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War in Ukraine

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As reported by the movement, this has created the feeling that it is possible to “buy” the right to stay alive.

This situation is no longer hidden within the unit, and the “special ones” are easily identified: they sleep separately, eat separately, and their names appear in combat logs, though they are never seen at the front.

“This deception creates hatred and alienation, undermines discipline, and completely destroys trust in the command,” ATESH concluded.

Earlier, it was reported that Russian soldiers are increasingly pretending to be ill to evade combat, with the number of such cases rising, especially after rumors about the redeployment of troops to the Pokrovsk direction.

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