Ukraine’s women snipers take the fight to Putin

“Sultan”, a 24-year-old with blonde locks and silicone-enhanced lips, squats to unzip an American Barrett sniper rifle from its carry bag. “The love of my life,” she says, as she places the gun in its firing position. A bearded instructor behind her barks instructions: “Three targets; 186 metres away; shoot to kill.” Sultan lies down, flicks her ponytail behind her head. The bullets land no more than an inch off target. She seems unsurprised. “You have to kill without giving a damn. And I don’t give a damn.”Sultan—she chose the name because she loves Turkish soap operas—is one of three markswomen who have been selected by her country’s special forces for advanced sniper training in the forests of western Ukraine. Like her colleagues “Phoenix” (indestructible, like the bird) and “Oksana” (a delivery guy called her that, and the moniker stuck), Sultan distinguished herself as a volunteer soldier in territorial defence units. But the demands of the Ukrainian front lines, in a specialist profession dominated by men, will be much tougher. The first stage of the adjustment process is the forest.