To give a sense of just how far that is, it’s roughly the same distance as walking from the Empire State Building all the way to The Great Lawn in Central Park, New York. For those on the West Coast, it’s nearly a full mile longer than the entire Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The marksman is said to have fired from a staggering 13,123 feet away, which comes to about 2.48 miles. He used a 14.5mm Alligator sniper rifle, and the shot was so powerful that the bullet smashed through a glass window near his position before it struck the Russian troops.
The dramatic scene unfolded in Donetsk, a region in Ukraine where Russian forces are thought to control as much as 70 percent of the territory. The bullet is believed to have been fired from Ukraine’s Pokrovsk–Myrnohrad defensive line.
The shooter is believed to be part of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, in a special sniper formation known as Pryvyd, or the ghost unit. This elite group consists of eight platoons of highly trained marksmen.
For comparison, American sniper Chris Kyle became famous for a shot during the Iraq War when he stopped an insurgent charging a U.S. convoy with an RPG. His shot landed from 1.2 miles away, which was considered extraordinary at the time.
During his military career, he claimed to have 255 confirmed kills. However, the U.S. Department of Defense officially verified 160 of them, leaving many of his other reported kills unconfirmed by the military record.
His remarkable story of service and sacrifice inspired the 2014 blockbuster film American Sniper, in which Bradley Cooper portrayed him.
It was during these efforts that the 38-year-old crossed paths with Eddie Ray Routh, the man who would later take his life. Kyle’s kindness and willingness to reach out ultimately placed him in the company of someone deeply troubled.
Routh, a former marine, had spent time in and out of hospitals struggling with severe PTSD. His trauma stemmed from his service in Iraq and the intense experiences he endured while assisting in the aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquake.
