Ukrainian sniper claims new world record after ‘picking up Russian soldier from 3.76 miles away using ‘Lord of the Horizon’ rifle’
A Ukrainian sniper claims to be a world record holder after picking off a Russian soldier from 3.76 kilometers away with a special rifle called ‘Lord of the Horizon’.
The unnamed sniper, who serves in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), has reportedly managed to beat the previous record of 3.5 kilometers, set by a Canadian special operations sniper in Iraq in 2017.
Video reportedly shows the Russian target falling seconds after the SBU sniper took the shot.
A line of three stationary Russian soldiers quickly becomes a line of two as the bullet takes out the soldier at the currently unknown location.
The SBU said: ‘SBU snipers are rewriting the rules of global sniping and demonstrating unparalleled capabilities to operate effectively at remarkable ranges.’
Video reportedly shows the Russian target falling seconds after the SBU sniper took the shot
A line of three stationary Russian soldiers quickly becomes a line of two as the bullet takes out the soldier
(File image) Ukrainian snipers are often deployed as a vanguard for planned counter-offensive maneuvers and are tasked with eliminating high-value Russian targets before other forces can enter
The Ukrainian military did not provide any other details about the incident, such as when or where it was filmed, or say how it had confirmed the deployment of their sniper.
‘Lord of the Horizon’ was developed and created by MAYAK, a Ukrainian weapons manufacturer, and measures a whopping 6 feet tall, the Firearms Blog reports.
With the right ammunition, the gun can fire bullets at a speed nearly 10,000 feet faster than the speed of sound.
The shot comes after another Ukrainian sniper claimed to have carried out the second-longest combat killing in history in 2022.
The unnamed sniper killed a Russian soldier at a range of 2,710 meters (about 2.7 miles) according to the Ukrainian military, which last year published footage of the shot looking through the sniper’s crosshairs.
Footage of their killing released by Ukrainian forces last year showed a man moving among trees before the gunman centered the crosshair on his chest.
Ukraine claimed that in 2022 one of its snipers took out a Russian soldier at 2,710 meters, which would be the second-longest range kill in the battle if confirmed
A Canadian sniper previously held the record for the longest sniper kill ever at 11,000 feet, while Briton Craig Harrison held the official second place before a Ukrainian sniper took it
The thermal sight was seen popping up, indicating the gun had fired, before the figure fell to the ground about three seconds later.
A second figure then came running towards the first in an apparent attempt to help his wounded comrade, before the sniper fired a second time.
Both figures then collapsed to the ground.
The Ukrainian sniper has apparently taken the record from British sniper Craig Harrison, who killed two Taliban fighters from a range of 2,475 meters in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2009.
The Afghan National Police confirmed that he had killed two Taliban fighters when they visited the scene of the shooting shortly afterwards to try to recover the militants’ weapons.
An Apache helicopter equipped with a laser rangefinder was then sent over Corporal Harrison’s firing position to measure the distance between the two points.
Harrison later said that he took the photo with an L115A3 long-range rifle and that the conditions at the time were “perfect”: no wind, mild weather and good visibility.
In the case of the record-breaking Canadian shot, it is believed to have been captured on film by a Predator drone that was circling overhead at the time.
The Canadian military said the shot was taken by a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, fired from the upper floors of a high-rise building.
According to a report by news site SOFREP, the killing took place in Mosul and the gunman and his team had recently trained in long-range sniping.
They had been shooting over the city at increasing ranges for several days prior to the record-breaking killing.
A second shot from the same sniper at a slightly closer range, just after the first missed its target, the site reported.
A separate record is held by another British sniper who killed six Taliban with a single bullet after it hit the trigger switch of a suicide vest he was wearing.
Lance Corporal, 20, of the Coldstream Guards, scored a stunning shot in Kakaran, southern Afghanistan, in December 2013.
His shot traveled a distance of 850 meters to reach its target, but the same gunman had previously taken out a Taliban fighter at 1,340 meters.
Confirming military killings is a notoriously difficult matter that relies largely on self-reporting by soldiers due to the difficulty of obtaining information from behind enemy lines during a conflict.
Over-reporting of casualties is therefore common and has plagued military tacticians throughout history.
Ukrainian snipers are often deployed as a vanguard for planned counter-offensive maneuvers and are tasked with eliminating high-value Russian targets before other forces can enter.
Kills made by the squad, which is named after their leader, are recorded electronically using the sights of their guns
The unit’s snipers often have to wait in one position for up to 16 hours a day and must be very well camouflaged.
The commander of the already legendary Ghosts of Bakhmut revealed that his unit’s snipers often have to wait in one position for up to 16 hours a day.
“It’s nothing like American films that romanticize the work of snipers and show it as very glamorous.”
The commander, Ghost, who claims to have killed at least 113 Russian targets, said most of the unit’s work is based on survival.
‘You learn to count, you do math. You learn to camouflage yourself, you learn about the environment. You can shoot well, but if you can’t survive, it’s of no value.’
‘We work 24 hours a day, we make no distinction between day and night. There are no weekends. You’re completely exhausted, all your juices have been squeezed out of you, and when you come back from a mission, you’re a complete mess.”