Female sniper 'behind 40 kills' is captured after being 'left for dead

Captured – the female sniper ‘behind 40 kills’: Sharpshooter is held after she was ‘left for dead on Ukraine battlefield’ by Russian comrades

  • A female sniper working for the Russian army, with 40 kills, has been captured
  • Irina Starikova, codename Bagira, was apparently left for dead by her comrades
  • The Serbian sharpshooter has been hunted by Ukraine’s armed forces since 2014

A female sniper with 40 kills to her name has been captured after apparently being left for dead on the battlefield by her Russian comrades.

Irina Starikova – codename Bagira – is reportedly from Serbia and has been hunted by the Ukrainians since 2014.

The country’s armed forces announced she had been seized and released photos of her.

Local media claimed Starikova, said to be divorced with two daughters, is responsible for ‘killing 40 Ukrainians including civilians’.

One outlet quoted the military as saying she was given medical treatment when captured.

The female sniper Irina Starikova, dubbed Bagira (pictured), with 40 kills to her name has reportedly been captured in Ukraine after being wounded in a battle with Kyiv

The Ukraine armed forces released photos of Starikova (pictured) after she was captured

She reportedly said her fellow fighters had left her ‘knowing that I was injured and had the opportunity to pick me up…hoping that I would die’. Starikova has served with the separatist forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which have been fighting the Kyiv government with Russia’s help since 2014.

Soviet Russia famously deployed female snipers during the Second World War while other countries preferred to restrict women to factories or farming.

The most successful, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was born near Kyiv and had 309 confirmed kills, giving her the nickname ‘Lady Death’.

A wound in 1942 stopped her active service and she became a celebrity and propagandist for the regime.

Most sharpshooters were graduates of the Central Women’s School For Sniping Training, near Moscow, commanded by female Spanish Civil War veterans. The combined efforts of the instructors and graduates are believed to have taken down 12,000 German troops during the war.

Local media claimed the sniper, who is said to be a mother-of-two and divorcee, is responsible for ‘killing 40 Ukrainians including civilians’

Starikova (left) has served with the Russian-backed separatist forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine since 2014

Another Russian female sniper, Yelizaveta Mironov, was only 17 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Born in Moscow, she had just finished high school when she volunteered to join the Red Army. Mironov fought in the sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol and had at least 34 kills to her name, although some sources claim she had more than 100.

Her comrades were particularly impressed with her exploits during five days of fierce fighting at Goryachiy Klyuch in October 1942 when the teenager is said to have killed more than 20 Germans. But she was seriously injured in the battle for Novorossiysk and died at the age of only 19.

Around 800,000 women served the Soviet Union during the war, including in roles such as pilots and machine gunners.

The activities of female Soviet fighters were also documented by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich in her book The Unwomanly Face of War written in 1985.

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The felled Sunak Magic Money Tree fell on his head
Next post Cedric The Entertainer Jokes About Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock