Yuriy Chornomorets
We have special mines that can fire cumulative streams at targets 50-200 meters away. We shoot those mines into Russian positions to demine those mining fields. After the stream, a corridor up to 200 meters is demined and the assault infantry can use it. But this “road of life” is also under Russian fire.
That’s why snipers always stick close to assault infantry. They suppress Russian gunfire, and keep the Russians low. Then we have machine guns that help us, mortars, grenade launchers, everything works as one to suppress Russian fire and protect our assault units. And 1.5 kilometers away are Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles.
That’s how we grind through Russian defense, and it is a very effective way to do that.
So, when we capture positions, that means Russians will start the massive counterattacks. And during them, the Russian forces actually have the highest casualty rate. Then, snipers work hard, taking out Russian soldiers day and night. And during these counterattacks, the Russians themselves trigger their own mines, as they are in a very mined area.
So, now we have a lot of wounded, but Russian army bleeds hard.
When we capture positions, Russians start massive counterattacks. During them, the Russian forces actually have the highest casualty rate. Then, snipers work hard, taking out Russian soldiers day and night.
I’ve also heard that snipers are essential for the work of sappers during the counteroffensive. Could you tell a bit about that?
Well, all our snipers must have another occupation. So, before the offensive, we had to demine those corridors for our people before the anti-tank trenches, then we had to put roughly a ton of explosives between two anti-tank trenches to blow that up and create demined paths. So, that’s what snipers also do.
This was only possible because snipers were covering the sappers who were implementing this, and were acting as sappers themselves, and this is why we have the movements forward in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Sniper groups: the most effective way for snipers to work
Tell us a bit about these sniper groups. How many people are in it, where do you find them? Are snipers in every brigade? What directions of the front are they in now?
When Russians first invaded Ukraine in 2014, we understood that snipers are very important, so we started to create groups of snipers, consisting of at least 6 or 10 people. Some of them use rifles with a caliber of .50 BMG, .375 caliber.
For those of us who don’t know: what is a .375 caliber, what is a .50 caliber?
.50 BMG is a long range bullet that helps us to strike Russian equipment and personnel in a 2 km range. And the .375 caliber, we mostly use Cadex rifles, allows us to shoot down Russian soldiers within 3 km. Last week we took out a Russian colonel who was almost 3 km from us in the Russian rear. And we also took out a Russian colonel across the river within a distance of 2.8 km.
We help talented people to realize their potential as snipers. They have been in the profession for 5 to 15 years. So we try to squeeze the most of the weapons that they have.
Apart from the core of super professionals who command sniper groups, there are also ordinary snipers, armed with Ruger .338 caliber rifles, or sometimes Savage rifles. And they also do a lot of work.
Everybody can take out targets within a 1.5 km range. We try to teach them to hit Russian soldiers within 2 km. It’s very important that they shoot not only during daytime but also at night, when they can eliminate a lot of enemies.
Such a group of snipers is always protected by our special operations forces, and is accompanied by at least two reconnaissance drones, two sappers, and two grenade launcher operators. Such a group can actually do a lot of different work during the offensive on the front lines and in the Russian rear.
We had times when a group like this, 30 people in a group, made raids inside the Russian controlled territories. The snipers took out the Russian soldiers who protected the bridges, blew up the bridges, which destroyed Russian logistics in those sectors. They also shot Russian tankmen during their lunch breaks, or blew up the tanks, or captured those tanks and came back to Ukrainian positions on them. All those people are heroes awarded with medals.
Many groups like this perform duties only with a direct order from the top commanders like General Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces.
The less-famed sniper groups perform duties under the command of the brigade commanders. But the commanders of some platoons or battalions can’t just give orders to the sniper groups; they are basically elite troops.
So when the brigades that take part in the ongoing counter offensive were summoned, sniper groups were created within those brigades. There are 62 snipers for four brigades. We supply those guys with everything they need. Without our contribution and our involvement, they would lack sufficient equipment to operate.
Sometimes the brigade is still in reserve, but the snipers are already fighting. It is a common practice. During the battle for Bakhmut, many snipers were technically in reserve but fought for the defense Bakhmut. Right now, Ukrainian forces try to liberate the heights around Bahmut, encircle Bakhmut and snipers are there.
We support the snipers from the 3rd Assault Brigade who are there now, but of course, there are many more.
So, the biggest action is right now in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and even there we have sniper groups who are technically in reserve, but they are already on the front lines fighting. We have to support everyone, every group of snipers.
Yuriy Chornomorets on one of his quests to find the right sniper rifle for Ukrainian snipers. Courtesy photo
You mentioned that there were cases where your snipers struck Russians from a distance of 3 km. That’s just amazing. And just today I read that a British newspaper reported that a sniper near Bahmut set a record shooting a Russian commander from a distance of 1.798 km. They said that this was the record. But you are telling right now that they shoot from even longer distances, from 2 and 3 km. That’s just incredible. Tell us, how does a sniper take out a Russian commander from a distance of 3 km? Take us through the process.
So we have to understand one thing, only geniuses can do that. Most of them were trained as snipers not only in Ukraine, but in the West as well. I have some people who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, protecting American convoys there. So it’s just a piece of cake for those people to eliminate targets within long range.
But we try all the time to train people, prepare them to hit targets within at least 2 km. We have a training ground in western Ukraine. Two European champions who work as instructors for the “novices” that are actually already successful snipers who already were at war, but want to become better and learn to shoot at further distances. We have a two-week course to help them to improve, and it takes a lot of work for them to be able to make that shot.
