Points for the kill

A commander with Ukraine’s Achilles regiment who goes by the callsign Stun during training in the Kharkiv region. — Finbarr O’Reilly/The New York Times

THE Ukrainian drone zeroed in on two Russian soldiers riding a motorcycle just after 9am on July 19 – closer and closer until it dipped, struck and the camera cut out.

For the drone operator’s regiment, it was a high-value score: worth as many as 24 points in a real-world game run by the Ukrainian government, where regiments are rewarded with points for successful attacks.