Why Ukraine's elite snipers, and their U.S. guns and ammo, are more vital than ever in the war with Russia
Eastern Ukraine — With additional U.S. funding for Ukraine suspended in Congress, the money Kyiv currently has could last just a few months. That's making it more important for Ukraine's military to lean into less expensive means of defense against the invading Russian forces, and one weapon that can be extremely cost-effective for any army is a sniper rifle in the hands of a sharpshooter.
Given access to the secretive world of Ukraine's elite snipers, CBS News watched recently as American bullets from American rifles cracked through the air near the front line on a battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
The sniper unit was training. They always work in teams of two. A spotter checks wind speed and range for the sniper, who then carefully adjusts his angle. Then, between heartbeats, he fires, hitting a target nearly a quarter of a mile away.
"Commissar," the sniper's callsign, laughed and called it "very easy" as he walked toward the target to check his shot. His uncle was a sniper, too. Commissar told CBS News he once hit a target at 1,715 meters, which is just over a mile away.
Asked why the work he and Ukraine's other snipers do is so crucial to their country's defense, Commissar said they "bridge the gaps where infantry can't… we liquidate top targets, like commanders and machine gunners."
With progress along the war's 600-mile-plus front line slow, if not static, snipers have become even more invaluable. In contrast to the high-tech war of high-flying drones and high-visibility hardware, the power of a sniper is low-tech, low-visibility and relatively low cost — killing high-value targets with a single bullet.
Everything about snipers is secret, including the location where we watched them training. Even the identities of the elite troops are protected, because they're high value targets themselves.
"An experienced sniper is priceless," the unit's commander Nikolai told CBS News. "A tank is just a bunch of metal and can be easily replaced, but it takes a lot of money and years to train a sniper."
We asked Commissar what it's like to peer through a scope at a target so far away, knowing that he is likely witnessing the last seconds of someone's life.
"When I first started, I got an adrenaline rush from the hunt," he said. But now, "nothing."
That hunt continues, with both U.S. and Ukrainian-made weapons. Many use American scopes and American .338 caliber rifles, and the unit told CBS News that 90% of its ammunition is also from the U.S.
Commissar wears a U.S. flag patch on his uniform.
"Americans have helped Ukraine a lot and taught me a lot," he said. "I wear this as a sign of respect."
The White House has said aid already allocated for Ukraine should last another couple of months, and President Biden has called allied leaders to say he's confident bipartisan U.S. support for Ukraine will continue.