A Ukrainian sniper has reportedly shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill, striking down two Russian soldiers with a single bullet from nearly two and a half miles away.

The extraordinary shot—measured at 4,374 yards (13,122 feet)—was fired on Thursday near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to Ukraine’s Defense Express. The gunman belonged to Ukraine’s elite “Pryvyd,” or “Ghost,” sniper unit and was operating with the aid of drones and artificial intelligence.

Footage released by Ukrainian military channels shows the round fired from a Ukrainian-designed 14.5mm “Alligator” sniper rifle before piercing a window where Russian troops had taken cover. “The bullet went through the window behind which the occupiers were standing,” wrote Ukrainian military analyst Yuri Butusov, who shared the video online.

The achievement  appears to eclipse not only the standing global record but also Ukraine’s own previous milestone. In November 2023, a 58-year-old veteran of the country’s Security Service (SBU) hit a Russian target from 4,156 yards (2.36 miles) with a “Lord of the Horizon” rifle.

Before Ukraine’s record-breaking shots, the benchmark belonged to a Canadian Special Forces sniper who killed an ISIS fighter at 2.20 miles in Iraq in 2017.

The Alligator rifle used in Thursday’s strike was originally marketed not as a weapon for infantry combat but as a tool for destroying equipment. Manufactured by Kharkiv-based XADO-Holding, the semi-automatic rifle fires 14.5mm rounds at speeds exceeding 3,200 feet per second. Its stated effective range was just 1.2 miles—barely half the distance of the latest kill.

The claim adds to Ukraine’s growing reputation for redefining long-range precision warfare, blending cutting-edge optics, AI-assisted targeting, and drone surveillance into its frontline tactics. If verified by independent sources, the shot would not only mark a new world record but also underscore how Ukraine is leveraging domestic engineering to challenge Russia with technology once thought impossible in the chaos of war.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)