Mother of two, one of Ukraine’s few female snipers, reveals with brutal candor how she gave up her comfortable job at the family business to become a ruthless killer

Iryna is a 37-year-old mother of two, only 6 feet tall and weighing less than 5 pounds. Her hobbies are reading, traveling, learning languages ​​and fashion. She is also a highly trained and ruthless killer.

Every day her task is simple and at the same time dangerous: shoot as many Russian soldiers as possible. Because Iryna is one of the few female snipers in the Ukrainian army defending her beloved homeland.

“My first murder was at the beginning of this year,” she says. “I didn’t hesitate when I pulled the trigger. It wasn’t difficult and I had an adrenaline rush. I didn’t feel pleasure or joy, but I didn’t cry or feel upset either. I was happy that I had done well.

“I did it and then went home (to her base),” she tells me matter-of-factly.

Speaking softly in near-perfect English in a secret training camp west of Kiev, the country’s capital, Iryna explains why she has no sympathy for her many victims: “The Russians came here to invade our country and that’s why I’m not sad because when they die.”

She prefers to operate at night because this protects her and her spotter – the second member of their two-man team, a male soldier who helps find, observe and choose her targets using a powerful thermal telescope – offers more safety and also more opportunities to find targets.

The sight of her sniper rifle makes her see the Russian soldiers as white shapes in the darkness. Sometimes she waits all night to fire just one shot, but other times she fires several within a few hours.

“I work as fast as possible,” she says, which means she is trained to kill as many enemy soldiers as possible in the shortest time possible.

Quiet, determined and always composed, she talks about her job satisfaction in the same way others discuss a routine role in the office. ‘I like my job. I have great people around me,” she says, referring to her fellow soldiers.

In an exclusive interview and speaking publicly for the first time about her deadly profession, Iryna explains her motivation for joining the Ukrainian army.

‘Before the war, my family and I had a wonderful life. But the Russians decided to try to take everything from us. That’s why I wanted to protect my country and my family.’

The day Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24 last year, Iryna, who is not giving her surname for security reasons, was working in her family business of shops and real estate.

She says her brother texted her that the war had started: “There was of course speculation that Russia would start the war, but I didn’t believe it could be true until it happened.”

The next day she brought her documents to the mobilization center in Lviv and said, “I want to serve.”

However, there was a problem: the Ukrainian army was not well prepared for female volunteers. Just registering took four days.

“And now I’m here,” Iryna says to me, sitting cross-legged in the autumn sun.

‘Eventually after enlisting I was sent to a unit and an officer asked what I wanted to do. I wasn’t strong enough to be a front line assault soldier, but I said I had some experience in shooting, which I had done as a hobby.

“He wasn’t really enthusiastic, but he gave me a rifle and I started sniper training last March. The training is tough, but I never thought about giving up.”

Since then, she has been assigned to several frontline regiments and units, including those operating in Bakhmut, Zaporizhia, the Donbas and other regions.

“I have Donbas soil here in my belt,” pointing to the buckle around her waist. The soil stuck to her belt is a result of her spending so much time on the ground, waiting for the trigger to be pulled.

Now there are 60,000 women serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces; more than 42,000 hold military positions, including 5,000 as soldiers on the front line. However, the number of female snipers is barely a handful. Some of these women face a battle not only against their Russian enemy, but also against sexism within their ranks.

Iryna says that this attitude has not changed much during her 20 months in the army: many senior officers still do not want women to serve on the front lines. This meant that when she started she struggled to find a uniform and equipment that would fit, as everything available as a standard kit was too large.

Iryna follows a small number of other women who have taken on sniper roles, such as Lyudmila Pavlichenko – a Soviet soldier born in Ukraine.

She was the highest scoring female sniper during World War II and was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union award – the most prestigious award available.

Pavlichenko claimed 309 kills, although some wonder whether that total may have been exaggerated. Like Iryna, she was a civilian – working as a trainee teacher – when her homeland was invaded by Nazi Germany in June 1941.

Iryna is the only female sniper in her special unit. Her weapon of choice is an Italian-made Victrix sniper rifle, caliber 338, with an advanced thermal sight and a sound suppressor. She wears a camouflaged uniform and body armor.

Her best shooting position is lying on the ground. Her preferred technique is to quickly fire between one and three shots, and then she and her spotter move away immediately before their position is located by the enemy.

She is able to kill an enemy soldier from a distance of just under a mile, but says it is easier and more effective to fire closer to her target.

Under Ukrainian military rules, she cannot discuss how many enemy soldiers she killed, nor the details of each action. After promotion, Iryna is now an officer serving as a lieutenant.

She says soldiers on both sides are most vulnerable when they move positions to resupply.

‘I don’t have a priority list with (specific) objectives. Every Russian soldier is a priority target,” she tells me with a wry smile.

She says the biggest threat to her and other snipers are specialized attack drones: “You can’t predict their movements. The most dangerous moment for me was when I came under fire from Grad (a multi-missile launch system that can destroy a huge area).

‘This was really dangerous and I was scared. I’m human, so of course I get scared. Only dead people are not afraid.

“I also had a situation where I saw a phosphorus bomb explode in the air nearby.”

Iryna’s family knows she serves in the military, but she has not told them her exact role. She says her mother would be too worried about her safety if she knew – so Iryna makes them assume it’s just a safe desk job.

She is also reluctant to discuss details about her personal life, other than to say that she has a school-age son and daughter. Her long and dangerous assignments far from her home in western Ukraine mean she is separated from her family for up to four months at a time.

However, Iryna’s closest civilian friends are aware of what she is doing.

“They know I have a big gun and they think it’s a cool job. They even think it’s a romantic role, but it’s not. It’s as hard as any job in the military during a war,” she said. ‘I prefer not to think about dying, but it is possible. If it happens, I want to die quickly.” She chooses her words carefully, as if to suggest that if she were to be killed, she would prefer to be shot by a rival sniper.

She adds that the hardest part of her job is when a comrade is killed in battle. “We lose our best people because they are always the bravest who take the most risks in battle.

“However, Russia is losing its worst people, its criminals and others sent to the front lines.”

I was able to secure an interview with Iryna through some of the military contacts I made during my five visits to Ukraine since the war began.

I ask if she is receiving guidance for her deadly role, but she shrugs as if to say that it wasn’t even considered.

“I don’t feel stressed, but I’m a little tired because of the long war,” she answers.

Outside of work she is caring and feminine. “I’m a woman, so of course I like nice clothes,” she says, laughing. Her overwhelming hope is that Ukraine will defeat Russia so convincingly that it will regain all its lost territory, both the land it has gained since last year and the land Russia seized in 2014 – such as Crimea.

Once the war is over, Iryna plans to leave the army and live a normal life again: “I put my life on hold, but after our victory I want to return to my previous job, travel more, study more and to spend time with my friends and family.’

Ukraine has a long history of bloody wars and to prevent more bloodshed in the future, Iryna says her country’s army must crush the Russian enemy once and for all, with the help of the US, Britain and others allies. “I hope we are the last generation that has to fight,” Iryna concludes. ‘My big dream is that our children will not experience war. My biggest dream of all is that we will not have Russia as a neighbor.

“I know it’s impossible, but I really want the Russians to go to Mars!”

© Lord Ashcroft, 2023

• Lord Ashcroft is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. For more information about his work, visit lordashcroft.com. Follow him on X/Facebook @LordAshcroft.