Ukraine’s armed forces have killed Russia’s top sniper, according to pro-Russian government sources.
The news of the death of Alexander Kislinsky, a sniper from the 22nd Spetsnaz Brigade of the Russian GRU/GU deployed in Ukraine, broke on May 24 on various Russian channels on Telegram and VK, the similar Russian social media platform. to Facebook.
Pro-Russian accounts characterized the veteran sniper killed in Ukraine as a “hero” and “a warrior” deserving of “eternal memory.” An image of Kislinsy’s funeral circulated on VK, suggesting that his body was taken to Russia for burial.
A VK account attributed to the Russian Special Units (SPR) confirmed that Kislinsky was buried in “his little homeland.”
According to the story, the sniper died in combat in Donetsk. “He died not only in the fight against Nazism, he died defending the Russian people and the Russian land,” the reports said.
In a video shared on Twitter, Kislinsky is seen next to a Russian tank marked with the pro-war symbol ‘Z’, the sniper saying in it: “My grandfather did not finish off the Nazi scum, but we will. They were hiding in the woods all this time, but now they’re out and we’re going to send them back, with our modern technology we’re going to wipe them all out.” Kislinsky also recounted his four grandparents who fought during World War II, two of whom survived while the other two died.
“So we have to finish them off,” he continued in the video. “Look at those, they walk boldly in their Nazi garb, they think we don’t see them, but we’ll catch up. Run guys, just run.” The VK account claimed that the sniper had become “a very effective combat unit” during the war in Ukraine, “causing significant damage to the enemy.” He added that while Kislinsky was a “tough opponent” for the Ukrainian enemy, he was an “extremely kind and understanding person.”
Photos of the sniper shared on Russian social media show him next to and inside tanks with the ‘Z’ symbol. According to published information, a photo of Kislinsky was taken with two other snipers in Donbass in May. In the middle of that month, a video shared on Russian platforms and published by researcher Rob Lee on Twitter shows Russian snipers, probably from the same brigade as Kislinsky, in Pinsky, a Ukrainian town in Donetsk.
