Ukrainian ‘ghost’ sniper breaks world record with 2.5 mile kill shot against Russians

A Ukrainian sniper is claimed to have set a new world record for the longest kill shot after they hit two Russian soldiers with one bullet from a distance of 2.5 miles.

Footage posted to Telegram showed a sniper fighting for Ukraine against the Russian invasion firing several shots at a target far in the distance before a flash showed he had hit the target.

This record-breaking sniper shot was taken in the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad defensive line in the Donetsk region, a part of Ukraine, which Russia has been pushing into, and Vladimir Putin is demanding as a condition of any peace deal he would accept.

The Times reports that the shot was taken on 14 August with a Snipex Alligator rifle, with the sniper assisted by a drone reconnaissance complex and artificial intelligence to help them line up the shot that killed two Russian soldiers.

An Alligator rifle fires 14.5mm calibre bullets at speeds of around 1,000 metres per second. It was made to fire at military hardware, but with supplies for Ukraine always an issue, they will use what they can in defence of their homeland.

The sniper is part of the 'Pryvyd' or 'ghost' unit, which claims to have eliminated around 1,000 Russian soldiers in the past year.

While their rifle is advertised as having an effective range of 1.25 miles, they can fire a bullet as far as 4.3 miles, though the further the shot travels, the less accurate it will become.

Making a kill shot, let alone one which hits two enemy combatants, at double the weapon's effective range, is a highly impressive feat of arms.

Standing at 2.5 miles, this new world record eclipses the previous distance of 2.36 miles set in 2023 by another Ukrainian sniper from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

That kill shot was made with a Horizon's Lord sniper rifle and surpassed the old record set by a Canadian soldier in Iraq in 2017 of 2.19 miles.

One of the former record holders of the world's longest sniper kill is British soldier Craig Harrison, who shot and killed two members of the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2009 from over one-and-a-half miles away.

Speaking to LADbible about the moment, he said: "I looked up and I could see two guys with a PKM belt-fed Russian machine gun and they were hammering down on the lads.

"It was a long way. It was 2,475 metres away, which is just over a mile and a half - and my rifle only shoots 1,500 metres.

"So I had to... I call it 'lob in'. I had to lob in, I lobbed the bullet in. It took me nine shots to get there, because I was bracketing - what bracketing is, is that you fire the first shot, see where it lands, add a bit more on, add a bit more on, add a bit more on, until you hit it.

"And I managed to hit the compound wall. So I fired, and I could see it just hit next to him. So I fired again - as I fired again, he stood up and I hit him here [points to centre of chest]. He fell backwards."

"Then the second guy stood up and I fired a third shot, and as I fired my third shot, I moved my rifle across, and I fired a fourth shot.

"So now, I've got two bullets in the air at the same time. Third one missed, fourth one hit him. It was 2,475 metres. I didn't know I'd broken the world record, I didn't know at all."