No one knows their names nor faces or exact location. However, Russia is ready to pay millions for their heads. “Ghosts of Bakhmut” is a sniper platoon within the Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky Separate Presidential Brigade. They were defending Ukraine in the Bakhmut direction for thirteen months. They are currently deployed in the direction of Pokrovsk. In this interview of the series “Victory Commanders”, Ukrinform talked to Ghost, commander of one of the most effective sniper platoons. We talked about how sniper work has changed with the advent of drones, what it’s like to look into the eyes of an enemy soldier while killing him, as well as about the secrets of efficiency, about provisions, the needs, and combat brotherhood.
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– “Ghosts of Bakhmut”… What makes them unique? Who are these people in your group?
– First of all, all these people are a family to me! We have been together since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Our unit was established as an independent tactical group within the Separate Presidential Brigade in March 2022, under a directive from the General Command of the Ground Forces. The unit was undergoing training during eleven months. We provided the guys advanced training. I selected them by personal qualities, that is, what mattered to me were personal qualities of each individual serviceman, patriotic motivation above all else. Because a person who is confident in his patriotic believes will, in principle, go to the end and fight for these believes.
So, the group was established; it was not yet dubbed Ghosts or Ghosts of Bakhmut back then, operating just as a separate sniper platoon within the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Presidential Brigade.
– What is sniper work like today, especially as drones flood the battlefield?
– There is a dramatic difference between sniper work as it was in 2022 and now in 2025. Drones began coming in sometime around late 2023. Until then, sniper work had to be done under intense artillery and mortar fire, but it was easier for a sniper to go out for a mission, safely reach or leave the mission area. With the advent of drones, the main challenge is getting to and from a position, that is, you are actually going through hell before you even start working. This is an additional challenge for snipers and for all the infantry, because the enemy is trying to keep control over all our logistical routes, as well as all the approaches to particular sections of the frontline, meaning we are always at risk of coming under FPV drone attacks while on the way to and from the mission.
What makes the core of sniper work? Firstly, a sniper is a person who performs special tasks, and his main target is, let’s say, valuable enemy figures. At the beginning of the all-out war, these were primarily mortar crews, now these are machine gun crews, enemy snipers and single officer targets plus, since recently, FPV drone operator crews. Why is that so? Because the equipment we have allows us reaching targets at ranges of up to three kilometers; from this distance, if everything goes well, we try to engage FPV drone targets, following their antennas. Well, here’s where the core of sniper work lies: you go out for a mission, work for a day, two, or three – and you get to home base the same way.
– When ambushing for targets during three days, is there time left to rest, to sleep?
– Let’s be honest, during the mission there is no such thing that a person lies down to have a rest. When a sniper is in position, he has to observe a particular area around the clock. We don’t work in pairs anymore, but work in groups (I have an average of six or seven personnel in a group). So, a sniper can have a rest as the mission is in progress. By rest, I mean having a sleep. Because if you stare into an optical device for 24 hours, your eyes will pop out of your forehead, so people work in shifts.
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– Which tactical approaches that you have used in your work do you consider the most effective? How often do you have to update your skills to remain relevant in a world of constant change?
– War is such a peculiar thing — you constantly have to devise something new. For security reasons, I would not disclose the elements of tactics other than saying that they are evolving, being updated. I am talking particularly about equipment, individual elements of work. Almost everything changes just in a matter of a week, because everything is being modernized, the enemy is modernizing itself, updating its tactics, and we too are updating our tactics. The only thing that remains unchanged is the shot the sniper makes.
– What makes the specifics of sniper work? What qualities and skills one needs to develop to become a successful sniper?
– I’ll start by saying that snipers are not born, but made as experience in sniping grows. This is about endurance in the first place. If a person does not have endurance, there is no way he can become good sniper. In addition to mental endurance, physical endurance does matter too, given that a sniper has to carry extremely heavy loads; an Alligator rifle, for example, weighs 35 kilograms. Following next is mental endurance, endurance to stress. Human beings are not born with endurance to stress, but develop it at certain moments in life as they grow up. What matters too is, perhaps, that a person should have smart mind, because much needs to learned, needs to be known.
Basically, the person should have an appropriate physical fitness, be morally stable and, as I said, be patriotically motivated, should know what for and why he is here. That is, he needs to be aware of particular risks facing him and, most importantly, not be guided by the thirst for revenge. That being said, a sniper must have a cold and clear mind, should not keep thoughts of revenge in his mind, because this will interfere with completing the task at hand, interfere with clear and sober thinking.
– How do you educate these qualities in your soldiers? What training methods do you employ to achieve this?
– In our team, there is collective responsibility, that is, each fighter is accountable for his comrade’s actions, giving members a sense of direction and motivation and promoting a sense of shared success: everyone is accountable for each and all members of the team. If guys have emotional breakdowns, as can be the case in any organization, given that we have been fighting for three years without a break, this must be revealed on due time. And due to the fact that we live together constantly, the guys deal with each other, that is, everyone knows each other, has learned all the strengths and weaknesses in each of the team members, if there are first signs of crisis, we just immediately begin to respond to stop it from worsening. The lives of our comrades are dependent on each and all of them.
– Could you tell a specific story where a life was saved thanks to accountability for comrades?
– Over the past three years, we, unfortunately, had a very tragic situation: a soldier named Vadym, call sign Taras was killed in action. He enjoyed great authority among the team, so this was really a huge loss. Taras saved three soldier’s lives. In fact, he sacrificed himself to save his comrades: he covered a grenade with his own body, it exploded killing Vadym. The three soldiers sustained wounds but remained alive. They were able to evacuate themselves from the scene and reach the home base safely. This is a conspicuous example of what motivation is, where, as you can see, a man sacrificed his life for others — a vivid example of what, perhaps, is impossible to explain — each soldier’s internal accountability to his peers.
– Weapons of what kind are used by your sniper group? What is the situation with provisions for your unit?
– There are no problems in this regard. As for the weaponry, everything we have, frankly, is of the highest standard of excellence. We use rifles of diverse calibers, which basically satisfies our needs for the accomplishment of our missions. Rifles are one thing, but the devices fitted on these rifles is another. What currently makes us superior on the battlefield, one might ask, even in the heavy presence of FPV drones? This is because the devices we have in our arsenal, thermal imaging sights, allow us to identify the enemy much faster than they can, because the identification distance is approximately up to four kilometers. We start working against a target when it is still at 3–3.5 kilometers away. At this distance, as you may understand, it is, in principle, almost impossible to identify the location of the shot or the crew who made it. This is where our advantage lies, and, frankly, with the weapons that we have we are hard to compete with.
But there is a problem such as the safety of entry/exit from positions. We lose our vehicles all the time. I’m not even talking about armored vehicles; it’s not even worth using them, because they are spotted long before they reach the combat zone, and they are the first targets to be destroyed. Therefore, we don’t use armored vehicles at this time. As regards motor vehicles — pickup trucks – they are hard to use too, but we repair them, buy them with our own money, and civilian volunteers sometimes help. In fact, you know, they are the same consumables as Mavic drones or FPV drones. We are losing an average of six vehicles per each two-week mission. This is a lot, given that equipment is currently very hard to procure, very hard to obtain, even by civilian volunteers. After all, once a sniper enters a position, he is already out of competition.
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– What about support from volunteers?
– There are people who are supporting us. I would say, volunteer support is currently very difficult to obtain. Why is it difficult? Because, perhaps, 80 percent of the Ukrainian population is already set on the fact that there will be peace, and if there is peace, then the war will be over, so why help then? I will tell you this: in Kyiv, in other cities, there is peace (if you discount regular missile attacks) only because soldiers on the front lines are still defending the country at the cost of their lives, equipment, losing the most valuable thing – the time they could have spent with their families. People used to help more previously. There is a volunteer who helped us obtain vehicles several times. Whereas previously a week’s time would suffice to raise funds for a vehicle, now it can take up to six months. It takes six months to raise funds for one single vehicle, but we lose six in every two weeks. It is broadly said that there are the Armed Forces that are supposed to provide for your needs. Let’s be honest, even large military formations are not in a position to provide their subunits with vehicles in numbers that large, because the losses are too high, sad to say.
– The enemy is systematically hunting for soldiers from your group. What security measures do you take?
– First, we try to disguise our faces with masks. The mask does not allow a face photo to be generated on the Internet. Second, no one knows where we live, move, where we deploy and how we deploy. Disclosing this information is a taboo, so it never goes beyond our group. We get a mission, are allowed a specific time to get it accomplished, so no one except us knows when and where we deploy for that mission. And, finally, – we never communicate with the outside world. That is, we do not communicate with other organic units, excepting at the level of coordination and allied actions. No one knows where our permanent base is located.
– How do you feel being isolated from the outside world for a long time?
– Man is a creature who gets accustomed to anything. Isolation? When in a civilian environment, none of us shows up as a soldier, and this is a factor by itself. My fellows have no difficulties going on vacation, but precaution measures must be in place, because one person can expose the others.
– What are the problems that bother you the most today?
– There are many problematic issues that need to be addressed, but we don’t tell anyone about the problems, we handle them on our own. I would like more help from the military formations to which we belong. Because, frankly, we have been tired doing everything alone. This problem is not only ours but a common one. This is one thing. Second, there is the work that the guys do, but, unfortunately, there are no awards for it or something. Let’s take the numbers: our group, small in numbers, has been working within a platoon for three years, having eliminated more than 1,500 Russian military personnel, but never deserved any awards. Does this tell you anything or not?
– Why do you think the awards don’t reach those who really deserve them?
– I am the only one in my unit to have been awarded a decoration. I’ve recently been presented with the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Medal 3rd class, which arrived through Nova Poshta postal company. In our unit, this, regrettably, is the only state decoration to be awarded during the entire war time. At the same time, numerous applications we submitted for departmental awards have all been satisfied; my soldiers probably have a dozen departmental awards each already. Every sniper who has eliminated at least two hundred Russians probably deserves a state award. Am I right or not?
– Each Ukrainian defender will hopefully be granted a State Award he deserves, because that is how it should be. On which fronts did you serve during the full-scale invasion? Where are you deployed now?
– We used to be deployed in many different areas of the Bakhmut Front during full 13 months. There was not a single place where we did not work. My group is currently performing tasks on the Pokrovsk Front, and likewise, we were deployed to virtually every part of the Front. For safety reasons, I would not disclose precise locations or reveal the details. .
– Are you planning an expansion of your sniper group? How can people join you?
– Everything is elementary simple. Those willing to get in should contact the Separate Presidential Brigade. Now, as far as I know, it is already possible to do this directly, that is, bypassing military recruitment authorities. After a basic training course at the Brigade, they will undergo specialized training in sniping techniques. Afterwards, we will be happy to evaluate them as candidates for joining our unit.
– You once said in one of your previous interviews, “As long as we have fear, we behave like human beings, are more intelligent. As soon as someone loses fear, it is the beginning of the end.” Did you lose fear during the great war because of what you had to experience?
– I will say frankly, it is normal to have fear; each of us has fear, is aware of the risks that may arise when going out for a mission. But, you see, a person who has no fears cannot have full control of himself or the potential scenarios that may happen to him while performing a mission. If you have fear, the first thing you do is playing out in your head every contingency that can happen to you, thinking over possible scenarios of you actions or behavior. And when already on a position, you automatically act according to these scenarios. A person who has no fear is a mentally lost person. An ordinary person should have fears. But fears manifest themselves in different ways. I, like every military serviceman, have fear of the bad things that can happen to me on the battlefield. I also have a fear of spiders. Strange to hear this from a sniper, yeah? Besides, I have a phobia for snakes.
Fear is perhaps a kind of an emergency stop button in your body that is activated at a specific time, saying, “Stop, think about what can happen”. Thus you hedge your bets. Because of my phobia for spiders and snakes, I always keep an antidote in my first-aid kit. Therefore, I have no fear anymore meeting them.
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– Perhaps, virtually every shot you make kills someone. Don’t you consider yourself an Avenger?
– No, I don’t consider myself an Avenger. I never take revenge for anyone nor anything. Above all else, I, like any of my fellows, swore an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people and its territorial integrity. That is, we are military personnel, we do the job we are supposed to do because we swore an oath. I prevent the enemy from moving towards our territory and deeper into our country. And this is not revenge, rather, it is job in the first place. If a person starts taking revenge for something, then, you know, revenge has no limits. That is to say, you get so deeply involved in this that you lose yourself and, at the same time, lose your life. That is why we do this job. And, believe me, not every sniper’s shot is a success. It sometimes takes up to 50 shots to engage a specific target.
– What do you feel at the moment you have locked on a target and have to make more than one shot?
– I guess when you get your job done, you have the satisfaction of making a successful hit. But you are still at war: either kill or be killed. That feeling cannot be conveyed.
– Is there an enemy whose last look before death stands out most in your memory?
– There were lots of such last looks, especially in Bakhmut. We were working at ranges of 400–300 meters, and faces are very clearly visible through the optical device. And thank God, I don’t remember them. I don’t dream of them at night. Maybe this is because you are just doing your job, because you accept it as your duty. But I remember every shot I made, remember every target I killed.
– Is it appropriate to ask a sniper about the number of targets he engaged?
– How many people, so many opinions. Each sniper knows the number of targets he has engaged, but not everyone wants to talk about it.
– What do you think about during the long hours while ambushing for a target?
– It’s probably more of jokes. We cheer each other up by telling some funny life stories, of which we have enough. When on a position, you remember the funny situations that happened to you during combat missions, the ones where you were on the verge of life and death, and you laugh about them. This is how we maintain high morale and psychological well-being during combat missions.
– Who is a hero for you?
– My first hero is Vadym Petryshyn, a comrade or ours who died in action. It takes a lot of strength of spirit to save other lives at the cost of one’s own. Our commander is a role model for me. I know lots of officers who are worthy, and I admire them for their deeds.
I am proud of the soldiers I fight with, because, you know, I have met very few people like them in my lifetime –sincere, honest, brave and respectable. This is worth a lot to me. I also have proud for our President. To be honest, I did not vote for him, abstained from voting. I am proud of him not for his behavior as President, but because of the policy he is pursuing against Russia in front of the whole world. You know, before judging someone, you have to walk at least part of the path he walked in his slippers. And, believe me, his is not an easy path.
– What are you dreaming to do after we win the war? What would you like to do first after the war is over?
– Probably to disappear, just disappear somewhere and not see anyone, not deal with anyone.
– Thank you.
Diana Slavinska led this conversation for Ukrinform
The interview can be watched in full here
Photo courtesy of Ghosts sniper group within the Separate Presidential Brigade
Source: Oleksandr “Ghost”, leader of Ghosts of Bakhmut sniper squad
