Volunteers Equip Female Sniper with Crowdfunded ‘Vovchansk’ Long-Range Rifle

Volunteers from the Vengeance Guard project, which provides equipment to the Ukrainian military, in Kyiv, recently handed over a sniper complex named after the embattled town of Vovchansk in the Russian bordering Kharkiv region to a female sniper of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

Volunteers Yury Chornomorets and Dmytro Batishchev started the Vengeance Guard project in May 2023. Chornomorets, a former sniper of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who now volunteers with the military, has already handed over three hundred sniper complexes to Ukrainian Defense Forces fighters, thanks to successful fundraisers.

Vovchansk became the 22nd city of Ukraine represented at the front by a designated sniper weapon due to this initiative.

Kyiv Post published an announcement about the fundraising for buying this rifle in a Ukrainian version of a piece titled “May They Burn Like Our Houses: Evacuees in Kharkiv Region Speak Out.”

Batishchev clarified that there are more rifles from the project on the front because Kharkiv and Mykolaiv already have two each. Pokrovsk is represented by three units of weapons, and the rifles of revenge for the village of Groza, “Ukraine,” and “Lyuta Vyshivanka” are also fighting on the front line.

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“The Ukrainian people are fighting. And average Ukrainians fundraise money for weapons,” the volunteer said.

“The editorial office of Kyiv Post has become a kind of ‘godfather’ of the Vovchansk rifle. After you posted the piece, the media start of fundraising for the basis of the complex—a RUGER sniper rifle in .338 caliber—began... due to the announcement within the piece, the city council of Vovchansk supported us,” Batishchev added.

In parallel with the fundraising for the long-range rifle, the volunteers also raised funds for its equipment.

“A RUGER in .338 caliber in the skilled hands of our sniper will shoot at 1,900-2,000 meters,” Chornomorets said when handing over the rifle.

“We also hand over a beautiful Nightforce ATACR scope, the best of those available today. Moreover, we plan to equip the rifle with a thermal imaging nozzle and provide a night vision device,” he added.

Volunteers also handed over 150 cartridges for the sniper complex and headphones to the sniper.

The female sniper, whose name has not been disclosed for security reasons, came to the weapons handover immediately after being discharged from the hospital. After that, she will go to the Kharkiv sector, where her comrades are waiting for sniper cover from her.

“The idea of ​​the Vengeance Guard project is simple. The community of every city in Ukraine can raise funds for a long-range rifle—the basis of a sniper complex. With the rifle, we also hand over a scope, a silencer, etc.,” Batishchev said.

Volunteers are launching another fundraiser as part of the People’s Vengeance Guard—for a sniper rifle, which will be named after the hero city of Okhtyrka. You can donate money to support Ukrainian snipers via PayPal at [email protected] .