A 42-year-old female Ukrainian sniper who is credited with at least 10 confirmed ‘kills while fighting pro-Russian separatists in the trenches of Donbas has vowed to take on Putin's troops if they invade her country.
The battle-hardened veteran Olena Bilozerska has already fought in the blown-up buildings and trenches of contested Donbas, east Ukraine, and says she will do it again to protect her country.
She says: "You take up a weapon against my country - that's it, you're a target. If you don’t take him out in time, he might kill you or one of your comrades."
Bilozerska became famous after a video of her picking off her enemy targets through a thermal imaging night sight in 2017, surfaced on the internet.
In the video that shows the ruthless efficiency of her deadly craft, Bilozerska is heard commentating on the "bastards" as she coldly fires shots at them after suddenly spotting two of them crawling from their trench spot just 200m away.
"It was the night of Ukrainian Independence Day anniversary in August 2017," she told the Dailymail. "These Cossacks must have assumed we were lying drunk in our trenches celebrating."
"I felt something interesting was going to happen when they started getting out of a trench and passing weapons to each other."
"I shot three of them that night," she said. "Two of them were what we call 'cargo 200' [an old Soviet military term for dead, referring to the labels put on coffins], and the third was 'cargo 300' [wounded]."
"I felt excited, because that night, a unit of six people came out of their trenches for the two of us - it doesn’t happen every day."
"Moral anguish about the 'murder of a human' was invented by people far from the war. An armed enemy is not a person, but a target."
"You take up a weapon against my country - that's it, you're a target. If you don’t take him out in time, he might kill you or one of your comrades."
"If I didn't shoot in time and the target hid, that's when I feel angry at myself for missing my chance. And if the target is hit, I feel the pleasure of a job well done."
Bilozerska believes she did the right thing to protect the country she loves.
"When the enemy crawls towards our position to kill me, does he think if I have a husband, parents, or kids?"
"Of course not. And I don't bother myself with stupid things either. That stuff is for books and movies."
"In real life, anyone who thinks along those lines in battle is already as good as dead," she said.
Bilozerska and her husband, Valeriy Voronov are both members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Services, and, along with thousands of other reservists, are ready to fight.
She believes Putin will not order an invasion and his troop build-up is mere "intimidation".
She said that even if his troop does invade, she is ready with her ‘Halia’, the traditional Ukrainian girl’s name she christened her Zbroyar Z-10 rifle.
"A weapon is a living thing -- It has a soul," she said. "There is a Ukrainian story about 'Spoilt Halia', which is why I chose that name – the rifle is always being cleaned and adjusted and looked after like a spoilt child."
"But she does what I ask her to do, and if the Russians decide to come, I’ll be only too happy to introduce them to Halia."
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