ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

At the start of the 2014 conflict, UAF sniper establishment was chiefly equipped with the Dragunov SVD rifles, adopted in 1963. Naturally, these weapons were insufficiently effective against distant targets, though were quite suitable for city fighting. Sniping was never a priority in Ukraine, the army looked upon it coolly, with the SBU spetsnaz and the 3 rd  and 8 th  Special Operations Regiments of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukrainian MOD being the main proponents of sniping. It was a sniper from the 3 rd  Regiment who claims the first recorded effective shot from a sniper rifle on May 25, 2014 near the Donetsk airport. For the sake of completeness, one should add these specialists also had a very small number of examples of Western sniper weapons bought before the coup. Moreover, Ukraine’s MVD had semi-automatic Fort-301 rifles built by the Vinnitsa-based Fort plant. This weapon uses the NATO 7,62х51mm round, and is a copy of the Israeli Galil Sniper rifl...

Illustrative image: YPG members On November 9, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) released new info about YPG attacks on Turkey-led forces in the Syrian region of Afrin. According to the YPG claims, the group’s Vengeance Unit Martyr Dilsoz attacked position of Turkish-backed groups in the village of Mihemediye. 3 members of the Sham Legion and 2 other militants were reportedly killed as well as 6 others were wounded. Separately, the YPG’s Vengeance Unit Martyr Rusyar carried out an attack on the HQ of the Sultan Murad Division in the city center of Afrin. 3 members of the Sultan Murad Division were reportedly killed and 4 others were wounded. On November 3, the YPG released a detailed report on its operations against the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Turkish-backed militant grousp in Afrin in October. According to this report, the YPG carried out 19 “military operations” in the area killing 3 TAF servicemen and 39 members  of Turkish-bac...