Tanks a Lot! Ukraine Declares Spoils of War from Russia Tax-Free

A Ukrainian serviceman gestures as he sits on a tank barrel in a basecamp near the town of
ANATOLII BOIKO/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The Ukrainian government has announced that spoils of war, such as Russian tanks taken from the battlefield, will not be considered as taxable income.

Amid footage appearing on social media purporting to show Ukrainian farmers towing away Russian tanks with tractors, Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption issued guidance saying that the “acquisition of objects seized from the racist [Russian] army” does not need to be declared on tax filings.

In a press release on Monday, the NAPC said: “Have you captured a Russian tank or armoured personnel carrier and are worried about how to declare it? Keep calm and continue to defend the Motherland! There is no need to declare the captured Russian tanks and other equipment.”

Explaining that spoils of war will not have been “acquired not as a result of a transaction” but rather as a result of the “full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation”, the government agency said that as a result Russian equipment should not be considered as taxable and are essentially up for grabs for the average Ukrainian.

The document went on to state that the value of “hostile military equipment, weapons and other armour/scrap” that is obtained is “impossible” to define, and therefore can not be evaluated whether exceeds the declaration of gains threshold which is set at 248,100 UAH (£6,161/$8,259).

It was also clarified by the agency that those who receive funds to fight the war effort will not have to declare it as “personal income” as it is being considered a “manifestation of the unity and cohesion of the Ukrainian people”.

The pronouncement comes after the genre of Ukranian farmer stealing Russian tanks has become a viral video genre in its own right. The clips are generally difficult to verify as genuine, or the actual context surrounding the towing, but clearly the official announcement that Russian tanks are free for the taking undeniably demonstrates it is a trend Kyiv wishes to encourage.

Some clues do exist, however. One clip was shared by the ‘Armed Forces of Ukraine’ account which, despite not being ‘blue tick’ verified by Twitter is nevertheless frequently ‘shared’ by verified official government accounts, shows a 1960’s Soviet-era 9K33 Osa surface to air missile rig being towed away. The unit is used by both the Russian and Ukrainian armies, but its painted camouflage appears to be of a Russian type.

In another widely-shared video, a towed AFV bears the distinctive ‘Z’ marking of the Russian invasion force peculiar to this conflict, suggesting that it was at least recorded in the past week.

The announcement from the government on tax-free tanks comes amid a flurry of unorthodox strategies from the Zelensky government during the war.

From the early days of the invasion, the Ukrainian government announced that it would hand out weapons to civilians to fight the Russian military, with officials claiming that they have distributed over 18,000 guns to the public.

“We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend our country,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter on Thursday, adding: “Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.”

The Zelensky government has also urged citizens to store up Molotov cocktails in their homes in order to throw at the Russian “invaders.

The government later decided to free prison convicts with “real combat” experience if they pledged to pick up arms against Putin’s forces in the “hottest” areas of fighting.

Zelensky has also called on able-bodied Europeans and other foreign men to come and join the newly forged “International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine”. In order to facilitate the process, visa requirements have been waived for those willing to fight for Ukraine.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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