A FEMALE Russian sniper with 40 kills to her name was captured after being abandoned on the battlefield, it was reported.
Irina Starikova - whose call sign is Bagira - is said to have told her captors she was left to die after being wounded in a battle with Ukrainian troops.
3
Sniper Irina Starikova has been captured by Ukrainian forces Credit: Twitter/@ArmedForcesUkr 3
Starikova says she was left to die by her comrades Credit: Twitter/@ArmedForcesUkr
She served with the forces of the Russian separatist Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which has been fighting the government in Kyiv since 2014.
Her capture was announced by the Ukrainian armed forces, who said she “shot our prisoners in 2014”, alongside pictures of her.
Starikova’s capture was also confirmed by Giorgi Revishvili, a researcher at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.
He tweeted that “Ukrainian forces captured infamous sniper fighting on the side of ORDLO, call sign Bagira” referring to the name Kyiv gives to the breakaway Russian-speaking regions.
READ MORE ON UKRAINE
LAND A BLOW Ukrainian soldiers recapture one of first towns to fall to Russia
BLANK STARES Russian soldiers appear terrified as they are awarded medals for Ukraine
Revishvili added reportedly she is responsible for “killing 40 Ukrainians including civilians”.
According to reports, Starikova is originally from Serbia and has been hunted by the Ukrainians since 2014.
Ukraine’s Obozrevatel news website quotes a soldier named Vlad Ivanov who said that Starikova was provided with medical treatment when captured.
She is quoted as saying that “they left, knowing that I was injured and had the opportunity to pick me up…hoping that I would die”.
Most read in News
DAD 'MURDERED' Woman, 23, charged with murder of young dad as family share tribute to him
ENSLAVED Russians snatch 40,000 Ukrainians from cities & force them into slave labour
BLANK STARES Russian soldiers appear terrified as they are awarded medals for Ukraine
'TERROR RAID' Terror cops storm public school to arrest boy who 'bought bomb ingredients'
Starikova was a sniper of 11th Specialized Special Operations Division, it was claimed.
Mystery surrounds Starikova’s background, with reports said she’s a former handball player named Daniela Lazovic, who has a conviction for drug trafficking.
It has even been suggested she was a nun at one point in her life.
Russia supported the separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine during a conflict which killed more than 14,000 people in seven years.
The open conflict was triggered by the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014 - when an uprising overthrew the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych.
It comes as....
Ukrainian soldiers have recaptured one of the first towns to fall to Russian invaders. Dramatic Call Of Duty-style footage shows the moment a Ukrainian soldier obliterates a Russian tank using a guided missile. Murdered Putin rival Boris Nemtsov ‘was tailed’ by an agent linked to Kremlin hit squad as suspect lays siege to Mariupol. Up to 40,000 Ukrainians have been snatched from besieged cities and forced into Russian slave labour in a war crime. Chilling footage shows injured Russian soldiers looking terrified as they are awarded bravery medals for their role in Putin's Ukraine invasion. Russia wants to split Ukraine in half like North and South Korea, the country's military intelligence chief has warned. A blind mystic who is said to have predicted 9/11 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine claimed Putin will become "lord of the world". Civilians in Kyiv have resorted to drinking sewage water as the city continues to be bombarded by horror Russian missile strikes.
Vladimir Putin's forces reacted by annexing the region of Crimea from Ukraine - a move which was widely condemned by the West.
Reportedly fighting on the Ukrainian side is a Canadian solider described as one of the world’s deadliest snipers.
The trained killer, nicknamed Wali answered President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for foreign volunteers.
The 40-year-old was previously deployed twice to Afghanistan as a sniper with the Canadian Armed Forces between 2009 and 2011.
Read More on The Sun
SWING RICHARD Will Smith 'SLAPS' Chris Rock on Oscars stage & curses comedian out
'KATIE'S A CHEAT' Katie Price dumped by fiancé Carl after he accused her 'of cheating'
Wali had previously travelled to Iraq on his own to fight against ISIS in 2015.
Equipped with a ￡5,000 military-grade .338 sniper rifle, the feared marksman claims he can kill at a range of 1,531 yards.
3
Starikova is said to have 40 kills under her belt Credit: Twitter/@ArmedForcesUkr
Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun's Ukraine Fund.
Give as little as ￡3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.
Donate here to help The Sun's fund
Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles
￡3 — text SUN￡3
￡5 — text SUN￡5
￡10 — text SUN￡10
Texts cost your chosen donation amount (e.g. ￡5) +1 standard message (we receive 100%). For full T&Cs visit redcross.org.uk/mobile
The Ukraine Crisis Appeal will support people in areas currently affected and those potentially affected in the future by the crisis.
In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world.
For more information visit https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/disaster-fund