“I have to be completely relaxed, find a place where I won’t move the rifle when I pull the trigger,” he says. “I don’t think about anything. It’s kind of a vacuum.” In a semicircle around his head are boxes of bullets, chart prints, a heavy-duty stapler, and a roll of tape. Strapped to his wrist is a screen, which is shaped like a jewelry box. It is a ballistic computer that takes wind and other environmental conditions into account. Bees persistently circling his head and field are ignored. After a long pause, he says the word “shot” in Ukrainian. Crack! A sound not unlike a starting gun used in sporting events causes a reflexive jolt in those unaccustomed to war. Six months ago, the noise might have scared Andriy, who had moved to Western Europe to pursue a career in engineering. His experience is similar to that of many Ukrainians who returned home to the war, abruptly retreating from civilian life to adopt fighting methods – modern and improvised – that hold back the much larger Russian army. Andriy hails from Bucha, a neighborhood near Kyiv’s airport that was hit during the Russian advance. Hundreds of civilians were killed there, bodies found in mass graves or left lying where they were shot in what the United Nations describes as possible war crimes. Tall and fluent in English, the sniper spoke to The Associated Press while practicing alone at an informal shooting range near Kyiv, hoping to work out some issues with his weapon through hours of trial and error before his next deployment. . He asked only to be identified by his first name and that certain details of his political life remain private. Andri walked home, took a flight to Budapest and arranged a 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) overland journey that included paying “a large sum of money” to a driver willing to make the perilous journey east. . Within days he had joined the fierce fight around Kyiv, adopting the martial nickname “Samurai”. He bought his own equipment and an American-made sniper rifle and began training from a special forces instructor, connected through friends in the military. “Early in the morning on February 24, I received a call from my mother. He lives in Bucha and told me that the war had started. He could hear helicopters, planes, bombings and explosions. I decided to come back,” he said. Although he is not authorized to discuss details of his operational activity, Andriy describes Ukraine’s military as a force that prides itself on its flexibility, drawing on a wide range of skills from its personnel to become more agile in combat. Snipers, he said, are often used to spot Russian military positions for artillery targeting. “I’ve also gained experience in tactical medicine, with drones and shooting with assault rifles,” he said. Military specialists are encouraged to learn new skills and even find their own equipment, with Western suppliers still supplying Ukraine in a private market monitored by the military. To protect his hearing, Andriy acquired a set of hunting headphones that suppress the noise from his rifle while amplifying voices. “You really need them,” he says. Russia has more than doubled the territory it controls in Ukraine since the invasion began in February, to about 20 percent of the country, but Andriy shares the optimism of many Ukrainians that victory will be possible after the winter. “I think with the help of our friends in Europe and the United States we can push them out of our territory,” he said. His desire to become a sniper came from familiarity with hunting rifles, common in Ukraine, and the role of a long-range sniper in video games. But his goal in the war: “It’s to get back to my home, to my family,” he says. “None of us wanted to be a warrior, a shooter, a sniper. It’s just a necessity to be here now and do what we’re doing here.” After a pause he adds: “I don’t know how to explain this: I don’t like killing people. It’s not something you want to do, but it’s something you have to do.”
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