Major blow for Putin as his most decorated sniper is killed on Ukraine frontline
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin has lost one of his most famous snipers after he was killed in the war in Ukraine, with the leader expected to honour the fighter.
Guards Senior Warrant Officer Vitaly Shapovalov, 51, has been described as the "legend of sniping" following his death. The soldier died in the city of Chasiv Yar, which is located in the Donetsk region. It remains unclear how he died.
Putin, 72, has buried the popular sniper with full military honours. The president is set to name him as a Hero of Russia, which is the Kremlin's highest award.
According to his obituary in Special Purpose Channel, Shapovalov was a 'legend of sniping in army circles, who raised more than one generation of snipers, some of whom became Heroes of Russia." He was also described as "an honest, fair and open person….with colossal combat experience.'
Shapovalov had a string of awards for bravery. Earlier he had five tours of duty in Russia's Chechen War, each lasting six months. He also operated as a sniper with Putin's forces in Syria, serving for a total of two years.
At the time, he said: 'I saw a tank coming out from behind the building, and the commander was giving orders while walking alongside the vehicle. Apparently he was giving orders to the mechanic, so I shot him. After that the mechanic decided to get out to see what happened and where to go. I shot him as well, then the gunner actually ran away.' He had been a sniper for almost a quarter of a century, according to reports.
On Sunday, Russia launched one of its most intense drone attacks on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine's air force said that Russia released a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys overnight. Of those, 88 were intercepted and a further 128 lost, likely having been electronically jammed. The attacks targeted the country's Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
According to Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk, a 28-year-old woman was killed in a drone attack on the region and three other people, including a four-year-old child, were wounded. The number of drones fired exceeds Russia's previous largest known single drone attack of the war, when Russia pounded Ukraine with 267 drones on the eve of the war's third anniversary.
The barrage came after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years on Friday failed to yield a ceasefire. Putin spurned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 's offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey after he himself proposed direct negotiations, although not at the presidential level, as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its western allies, including the US.
US President Donald Trump said he plans to speak by phone on Monday to Putin, followed by Zelensky and leaders of various Nato countries, about ending the war in Ukraine.
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