The Ukrainian sniper who killed a Russian soldier from a record 3.8 kilometres (around 2.3 miles) is a 58-year-old ex-businessman, Vyacheslav Kovalskiy. The shot by Mr. Kovalskiy, spanning 12,468 feet, covered a distance greater than that of two Brooklyn Bridges in approximately 9 seconds, ultimately resulting in the death of the enemy soldier.
“I was thinking that Russians would now know that is what Ukrainians are capable of,” the previously unidentified sniper told The Wall Street Journal in his first media interview.
“Let them sit at home and be afraid.”
The sniper and his “spotter” initially observed Russian soldiers cutting wood but considered them too low-ranking to shoot. Moments later, he noticed a group of other soldiers and one of them was an officer giving orders.
Mr Kovalskiy waited for hours in freezing temperatures before he shot the target nearly 3.8 km away.Â
“You can,” his spotter instructed him.
After the colleague gave him the go-ahead, the sniper measured the distance and specialist software and meteorological data to calculate the effects of the wind, humidity, temperature and even the curvature of the Earth.
After a test shot, they figured that they had gotten the wind speed wrong. The sniper reset, reloaded and fired his bullet- Â half a foot long at 6.2 inches – at a speed of 960 mph.
“You have to [shoot] immediately because the wind changes constantly,” Kovalskiy explained to the outlet. Â
The footage which went viral earlier showed one of the Russian soldiers dropping to the ground after the Ukrainian sniper took the long-distance shot.Â
The media outlet reported that the sniper was already packing up his rifle before it was even confirmed that he had hit his target.Â
Kovalskiy and Ukraine say the shot set a new sniping distance record, breaking the previously acknowledged mark by more than 850 feet.
However, some in the sharpshooting community said that they are still sceptical of the alleged feat.Â
“For conventional sniping, there are so many variables that are hard to quantify, so the reality is anything over about 1,300 meters [about 4,265 feet] can be more luck than skill,” said Steve Walsh, a former US Marines sniper instructor.
US ballistics expert Brad Millard told the paper that the 9-second timing of the shot’s trajectory in the video was accurate.
According to Metro, the sniper broke the previous record held by a Canadian special forces sniper who shot at a distance of 3.54 kilometres in Iraq in 2017. British sniper Craig Harrison also held the title after he killed a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan in 2009, from a distance of 2.48 kilometres.Â
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