Owl, the nom de guerre of a scout-saboteur, finally had a chance to rest after taking part in combat operations in the Donbas war zone. Speaking to the Kyiv Post by phone on July 17, he would only offer his alias because he still expects to go on missions in eastern Ukraine.
A member of the Saint
Maria volunteer battalion, Owl is also a trained sniper who trains others in
the craft at a sniper school that the independent military unit founded in
Dnipropetrovsk.
Based in Artemivsk in
Donetsk Oblast, the battalion is not subordinate to either the Defense or
Interior ministries and is made up Orthodox Christians who founded the sniper
school.
“I was experienced
enough (in snipe shooting) already, so my classes at the sniper school were
very short. Only two months. But in general you need a year to become a professional
shooter,” said the soldier.
Owl, 45, served in the
Soviet army and fought in the Afghan war during the 1980s. “I decided to join
the (sniper) school immediately after the war in Donbas had begun (in mid-April
2014). My sniping skills needed to be
refreshed,” he said.
The Christian school of
snipers was initially established by soldiers of the Saint Maria volunteer
battalion in May 2014 to provide tactical and physical training to volunteers
heading to the war zone in the Donbas.
The school is a
non-registered volunteer organization, created by a religious group called The
Fellowship of Orthodox Christians jointly with the Saint Maria volunteer
battalion.
Andriy Tuyakov, the
head of the sniper school, sees no conflict between his faith and teaching the
deadly art of sniping.
“An Orthodox person
should not be a coward; he should be able to defend his home and family,” Tuyakov
told the Kyiv Post by phone.
“Christianity is a religion of mighty warriors, ready for exploits.”
One of the instructors
at the school, nicknamed Muslim, who also heads to the war zone, said volunteer
soldiers from a variety of military units were undergoing instruction there.
“We mainly prepare
soldiers to reinforce our own volunteer battalion,” Muslim told the Kyiv Post
by phone. “But this year we’ve had graduates who have served in many other
volunteer battalions, or in local self-defense squads.”
According to Tuyakov,
the founders of the school decided to prepare snipers because of their
effectiveness on the battlefield.
Muslim, like Tuyakov,
denies that teaching high-precision shooting at live targets at a Christian-run
school is contradictory in religious terms.
“We’re not teaching
people how to kill, but are showing them how to defend our country and its
believers from the enemy,” Muslim said.
He said the Christian-run
school for snipers was open not only to Christians but to people of other
faiths, or those of none. The main criteria for acceptance to training are that
the candidate is an adult, and is a patriot ready to defend their country.
Moreover, certificates
proving the candidate’s mental and physical health are also required by the
school.
Groups of twenty to
thirty candidate snipers are regularly accepted at the school to undergo
training. Muslim said a large percentage of them are women.
“Women get more
favorable conditions only at the initial stage of training, when the whole
group focuses on physical training,” he said. “When the sniper training phase
starts, all concessions to the fairer sex are canceled.”
Usually only ten out
of the group advance to the sniper-training stage.
“Not everyone can
become a sniper,” Muslim says. “It requires strong physical and mental
endurance. Flexibility and excellent vision also play important roles.”
Classes at the school
of snipers are free and are held several times a week for three hours. Trainees
practice shooting at the school’s special range in Dnipropetrovsk, and usually
have to supply their own weapons.
Being a sniper is one
of the most difficult and dangerous military occupations. If captured by the
enemy, they can expect very harsh treatment, and the likelihood of being
released in a prisoner swap is low.
“We teach our
students how not to fall into captivity,” Muslim said. “If detected, a sniper
becomes the number one goal for enemy units. They will try to destroy them with
any kind of weapons.”
The Kyiv Patriarchate
of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reacted negatively to the establishment of the
Christian school of snipers.
Yevstratii, the
Archbishop of Chernihiv and spokesman for the church told the Kyiv Post that
the church considers that Ukraine’s cause against the external enemy is a noble
deed.
However, the church is
categorically against the militarization and politicization of the religion.
“This school, as well as the Saint Maria battalion, is deeply connected with
the organization Brotherhood, led by the radical activist Dmytro Korchynsky.
And I think he is using faith of that people to gain his own political goals,”
said Yevstratii.
Korchynsky and other
members of Brotherhood were initially accused of violent provocative actions at
the start of the EuroMaidan Revolution in December 2013 by Serhiy Sofiev,
deputy prosecutor of Kyiv, according to BBC. The charges were later dropped
because of lack of evidence.
Korchynsky is also a
member of the Saint Maria battalion in Donbas and serves as a grenade launcher
operator.
Kyiv Post writer Veronika Melkozerova can be
reached at [email protected].
