A Russian company said it would offer five million rubles ($72,000) in cash to the first soldiers to destroy or capture Western-made tanks in Ukraine, after the Kremlin promised that Russian forces would destroy any combat vehicles delivered to Ukraine. Reuters reports.

German tank Leopard 2Photo: Christoph Schmidt / AFP / Profimedia Images

The United States, Germany and several other European countries have pledged to send dozens of heavy battle tanks to Kyiv over the next few months to help bolster Ukraine’s military capabilities as the war approaches the 12-month mark.

The Kremlin criticized the decision as a dangerous escalation, and spokesman Dmytro Peskov said the tanks would “burn” on the front lines.

Now Russian company Fores, a Urals firm that makes materials for the energy industry, is offering cash to the Russian military that “captures or destroys” German Leopard 2 tanks or American Abrams tanks.

In Moscow, in the voice of the head of the Russian delegation in Vienna at the OSCE Forum, Konstantin Gavrilov, they said that combat vehicles are “some kind of beasts” equipped with sub-caliber armor-piercing shells with a uranium core.

The company said it would pay five million rubles, or $72,000, to the first Russian soldier to destroy one of the tanks, and 500,000 rubles, or $7,200, for all subsequent attacks.

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NATO intensifies the conflict

Joining the rhetoric of Russian officials and pro-war state broadcasters, Fores said NATO was supplying Ukraine with “unlimited” weapons and was fueling the conflict, and he also said he would pay a reward of 15 million rubles, or $215,000, for Western-made fighter jets if they will be delivered to Ukraine someday.

The tanks have not yet arrived in Kyiv, and it may be several months before most of the promised deliveries are dispatched.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed to have destroyed hundreds of Western weapons.

Kyiv has previously rejected these claims, pointing out, for example, that Russia claims to have destroyed more US HIMARS launchers than have ever been delivered to the country.

Previous shipments of Western weapons, including HIMARS, were credited with turning the tide of the war, now in its 12th month, helping Kiev score a series of surprise victories and pushing Russian troops out of territory seized at the start of the invasion.

Read here the most important information from 341st day of the war in Ukraine