“Stopping the modern Hitler”: snipers hold the line in Ukraine’s battle for survival

Yuriy Chornomorets, a professor of theology and religious studies at the Drahomanov Kyiv University, took up a sniper rifle when Russia invaded and drove out Russians from Chornobyl. Afterward, he became the patron of Ukrainian snipers, helping hundreds of sharpshooters all around the country (follow him on twitter and donate to him on Paypal: [email protected]).

We met Yuriy in our studio in Kyiv as part of the Patron Talks series, where Euromaidan Press supporters on Patreon meet incredible people who share incredible stories of Ukraine’s fight for survival. Become one of them or see other ways to support us here.

Yuriy, how did a professor of theology become a sniper at the start of the Russian invasion?

I used to shoot in my youth and I had those skills, and when the full-scale invasion started, I just took my rifle and went to war. When I came to the Ukrainian military base, they said that a scout detachment will arrive soon and that I would accompany them. First, only I accompanied them; then we created a sniper group of three. And we fought, near Kyiv, on the Irpin River, near Moshchun on the north-east, and then tried to take out Russians in the rear in Chornobyl. I liked to fight; I met extraordinary people and we managed to do a lot to defend Ukraine. (Read about Yuriy’s defense of Chornobyl in detail here).

When I lost my health, snipers from all over Ukraine started to ask me for help because I was the only sniper in Kyiv who knew about bullets. We started buying sniper rifles and have purchased 178 of them, as well as scopes, bullets, and everything else a sniper needs. We also bought 20 cars that are needed on the frontline. So, these are our achievements.

Snipers: second place in inflicting casualties

The last time that you spoke to Euromaidan Press, you said that helping snipers is the most cost-effective thing you can do for Ukrainian army, apart from artillery. Is that still true?

Judging from the casualties rates from our side and the Russian side, and according to the information from the medics, when it is relatively calm on the front lines:

• 88% of casualties are from artillery.
• 10% are from snipers.
• 2% are from ordinary gunfire.

When the offensive starts either from the Ukrainian side or Russian sides, then the proportions are different, but in general, snipers are always in second place.

Another reason why snipers are important is that if the Russian attack is going on, and the Russians are trying to encircle Ukrainians, then snipers come to the scene. One of the effective ways to stop their attack, when there is not enough artillery or machine guns, is to use snipers in a direct attack. Very seldom does an attack continue when the snipers start shooting. Usually, the Russians retreat.

Additionally, during Ukrainian regular offensives, like it was near Kharkiv [in the fall of 2022], it is important to suppress the machine guns of the enemy, to hit their armored vehicles from Barrett .50 BMGs and capture them.

Ukrainian sniper-theologian tells why Russians are ready to die for Putin’s regime

How is that possible? To capture armored vehicles from a sniper rifle? Tell us about that.

Well, sniper rifles of caliber .50 BMG penetrate the armor of the IFV. There are three types of American armor-piercing bullets. The explosion inside the IFV is like ball lightning; the vehicle stops, and you can shoot a few more times. But the main thing is that after capturing this vehicle, it can be easily repaired and used for attacks.

You mentioned special American bullets right now. I imagine that the right equipment is essential in your work. Could you tell us more about what sort of tools the snipers need?

First of all, we use American armor-piercing bullets, taking them from Browning machine guns. Not every bullet from those machine guns is suitable for our sniper rifles. So, our task is to find compatible ones and supply everyone.

Usually, we use an ordinary .50 BMG caliber sniper bullet to take out soldiers, we buy those every day and have purchased nearly 150,000 of those bullets. .416 Remington Magnum, .375 CheyTac, .338 Lapua Magnum are the most widespread calibers that we use, sometimes we buy thousands of those daily, especially now.

Overall, snipers shoot more in this war than in previous wars, and even more so during the counter-offensive. So, we need a lot of bullets, the demand is huge and we are forced to buy those every day, because otherwise the counter-offensive will stop.

Russians mined everything. This is even worse than during the Kursk battle, in World War II. They mined literally everything they could. They even mined their trenches. Even if you get to the enemy trench and jump into it, it doesn’t mean that you will survive. A Russian officer somewhere there can remotely activate all those mines along with Ukrainian soldiers and the remnants of Russian soldiers.

There are huge difficulties with the Russian mining, and it gets worse, becase Russians constantly disperse many bombs with the help of special devices on top of what is mined already. So, neither the military nor the infantry can move around freely.

We have special mines that can fire cumulative streams at targets 50-200 meters away. We shoot those mines into Russian positions to demine those mining fields. After the stream, a corridor up to 200 meters is demined and the assault infantry can use it. But this “road of life” is also under Russian fire.

That’s why snipers always stick close to assault infantry. They suppress Russian gunfire, and keep the Russians low. Then we have machine guns that help us, mortars, grenade launchers, everything works as one to suppress Russian fire and protect our assault units. And 1.5 kilometers away are Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles.

That’s how we grind through Russian defense, and it is a very effective way to do that.

So, when we capture positions, that means Russians will start the massive counterattacks. And during them, the Russian forces actually have the highest casualty rate. Then, snipers work hard, taking out Russian soldiers day and night. And during these counterattacks, the Russians themselves trigger their own mines, as they are in a very mined area.

So, now we have a lot of wounded, but Russian army bleeds hard.

I’ve also heard that snipers are essential for the work of sappers during the counteroffensive. Could you tell a bit about that?

Well, all our snipers must have another occupation. So, before the offensive, we had to demine those corridors for our people before the anti-tank trenches, then we had to put roughly a ton of explosives between two anti-tank trenches to blow that up and create demined paths. So, that’s what snipers also do.

This was only possible because snipers were covering the sappers who were implementing this, and were acting as sappers themselves, and this is why we have the movements forward in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Sniper groups: the most effective way for snipers to work

Tell us a bit about these sniper groups. How many people are in it, where do you find them? Are snipers in every brigade? What directions of the front are they in now?

When Russians first invaded Ukraine in 2014, we understood that snipers are very important, so we started to create groups of snipers, consisting of at least 6 or 10 people. Some of them use rifles with a caliber of .50 BMG, .375 caliber.

For those of us who don’t know: what is a .375 caliber, what is a .50 caliber?

.50 BMG is a long range bullet that helps us to strike Russian equipment and personnel in a 2 km range. And the .375 caliber, we mostly use Cadex rifles, allows us to shoot down Russian soldiers within 3 km. Last week we took out a Russian colonel who was almost 3 km from us in the Russian rear. And we also took out a Russian colonel across the river within a distance of 2.8 km.

We help talented people to realize their potential as snipers. They have been in the profession for 5 to 15 years. So we try to squeeze the most of the weapons that they have.

Apart from the core of super professionals who command sniper groups, there are also ordinary snipers, armed with Ruger .338 caliber rifles, or sometimes Savage rifles. And they also do a lot of work.

You can hear from the voice how tired the guys are. ⬇️
I gave them the rifle and silencer. But without optics and bipods, this is not a sniper complex. I do my best to help these guys too.
Help me help them‼️
I beg you‼️ #StandWithUkraine #SupportUkraine #UkrainianOffensive pic.twitter.com/6WPQa3lJee

— Yuri Chornomorets (@Y_Chornomorets) July 17, 2023

Everybody can take out targets within a 1.5 km range. We try to teach them to hit Russian soldiers within 2 km. It’s very important that they shoot not only during daytime but also at night, when they can eliminate a lot of enemies.

Such a group of snipers is always protected by our special operations forces, and is accompanied by at least two reconnaissance drones, two sappers, and two grenade launcher operators. Such a group can actually do a lot of different work during the offensive on the front lines and in the Russian rear.

We had times when a group like this, 30 people in a group, made raids inside the Russian controlled territories. The snipers took out the Russian soldiers who protected the bridges, blew up the bridges, which destroyed Russian logistics in those sectors. They also shot Russian tankmen during their lunch breaks, or blew up the tanks, or captured those tanks and came back to Ukrainian positions on them. All those people are heroes awarded with medals.

Many groups like this perform duties only with a direct order from the top commanders like General Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces.

3⃣ We will keep going to do everything so that Da Vinci Wolves live, and the enemy does not.
Please continue to Help us, we need many more miracles!
Retweet, Like, Donate, Pray!https://t.co/xecJf41iJ9 pic.twitter.com/DZ6rAs7AeL

— Yuri Chornomorets (@Y_Chornomorets) July 7, 2023

The less-famed sniper groups perform duties under the command of the brigade commanders. But the commanders of some platoons or battalions can’t just give orders to the sniper groups; they are basically elite troops.

So when the brigades that take part in the ongoing counter offensive were summoned, sniper groups were created within those brigades. There are 62 snipers for four brigades. We supply those guys with everything they need. Without our contribution and our involvement, they would lack sufficient equipment to operate.

Sometimes the brigade is still in reserve, but the snipers are already fighting. It is a common practice. During the battle for Bakhmut, many snipers were technically in reserve but fought for the defense Bakhmut. Right now, Ukrainian forces try to liberate the heights around Bahmut, encircle Bakhmut and snipers are there.

We support the snipers from the 3rd Assault Brigade who are there now, but of course, there are many more.

So, the biggest action is right now in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and even there we have sniper groups who are technically in reserve, but they are already on the front lines fighting. We have to support everyone, every group of snipers.

You mentioned that there were cases where your snipers struck Russians from a distance of 3 km. That’s just amazing. And just today I read that a British newspaper reported that a sniper near Bahmut set a record shooting a Russian commander from a distance of 1.798 km. They said that this was the record. But you are telling right now that they shoot from even longer distances, from 2 and 3 km. That’s just incredible. Tell us, how does a sniper take out a Russian commander from a distance of 3 km? Take us through the process.

So we have to understand one thing, only geniuses can do that. Most of them were trained as snipers not only in Ukraine, but in the West as well. I have some people who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, protecting American convoys there. So it’s just a piece of cake for those people to eliminate targets within long range.

But we try all the time to train people, prepare them to hit targets within at least 2 km. We have a training ground in western Ukraine. Two European champions who work as instructors for the “novices” that are actually already successful snipers who already were at war, but want to become better and learn to shoot at further distances. We have a two-week course to help them to improve, and it takes a lot of work for them to be able to make that shot.

You have to do a lot of preparations, study the territory where you will operate. For instance, within 2 km the wind changes its direction several times. You need to spend at least 1 or 2 days just studying the landscape and the location, how the wind changes and stuff like that, and make the shot when the time comes.

However, our people try to perform tasks that they can actually do right now with their skills and understanding of the process. If they cannot shoot at long distances, we send them to the forests of Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast, where the distance of the average shot is 400-600 m. There, even young snipers can eliminate at least three Russian invaders in a day.

And the main task there is not only to shoot, but escape from mortars. Because after two-three shots you have to relocate: Russian recon drones try to spot you and try to coordinate mortar fire against you. The guys lose a lot of weight there, not just because they need to run a lot in the forest, but because they are so nervous. But they are really successful in what they are doing in those forests in Kreminna. And afterward, they are able to operate within a longer range. For young snipers like that, a shot within 1.5 km range is a new record. They usually use Savage rifles.

Snipers are crucial for reconnaissance

So how do you spot a Russian commander from 3 km?

We have excellent optics. We have 60x riflescopes that help us even to see if a man has shaved or not. Also we have good sights for the sniper rifles.

And we have good optics for sniper rifles. NightForce, Mark 5 Leupold, Mark Gen III. We can not only shoot a person 3 km away, but, importantly, we can do reconaissance very effectively.

During our successful counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast in autumn 2022, one of our sniper groups moved from Sviatohirsk through the National Reserve, and climbed on a cliff, and saw how Russians fortified their positions around one of the villages 6 km away. This was their main position near Lyman and Yampil, which Ukrainian forces had to liberate. The Russians were relaxed; yet, we could see everything. We could see their minefields. We could see the machine guns. The Russians thought that since there were no drones visible, nobody could see them.

But the snipers did. They completely mapped the position, developed routes which Ukrainian battalion groups could use, and headed the three columns that unexpectedly liberated three villages from the Russians. Ukrainians had many losses before they came here, but they captured these three villages, where the Russians had the main line of defense, within just half and hour and with only three wounded.

So, reconaissance is one of the main benefits of snipers. A sniper is a commander’s chief assistant. He can notice everything and suggest how to react. Sometimes our snipers even became commanders on the battlefield, because they had more information than the commanders.

This is what happened near Huliai Pole, when the Russians attacked our positions six times in 20 hours. The head of the sniper group was commanding the artillerymen of the 57th brigade. In the headquarters at night, the brigade commander told him “I can give you the Hero of Ukraine award, you saved us! If not for you, we would have needed to retreat to Dnipro.” And the sniper says, “I don’t want the award, just give me a tank.” So they actually gave him a tank that was captured from the Russians.

Ukrainian theology professor turned sniper tells how to hunt for Russian invaders

Amazing. Let’s say you’re a sniper who wants to take out a Russian commander. How do you know who is the commander in the group?

So those people are very skillful, some of them are officers, some are sergeants. And when we have a talented person with huge experience, we give him an opportunity to create his own group. So he summons guys into his group. Only two snipers whom I started to help with by crowdfunding and supplies had their own groups; others had to create them from scratch, and we pushed them into that direction. We had two reasons to do that.

1. With an experienced commander, a group of 6-10 people, the newcomers survive. This is very beneficial to us, as cynical as that might sound. It takes a lot of time and resources to train and prepare a sniper. Sometimes we had people who were tremendously successful at the training ground, but lasted only one day at the battlefield. Russians have a strong sniper school themselves. They have developed counter-sniper measures; so you have chance to be effective and survive only in a group of snipers. Experience that you can’t get on a training ground is needed. So we forced those experienced snipers to create groups just to help our guys to learn and survive.
2. The effectiveness according to statistics shows that two young snipers can achieve tenfold more results within a sniper’s group than if they just went out to the battlefield themselves. This is impressive. That’s why we pay attention to creating those sniper groups.

In fact, there exists a textbook written in the Ukrainian Army, based on the “small war” with Russia between 2014-2021 and eperience of snipers within the American special operations forces, clearly states that Ukraine needs to create sniper’s group to be more effective. We were not aware of that book, and so when we started to create sniper’s groups in April 2022, it was chaotic, as we didn’t have enough information. We just did what we thought was effective, and it worked.

The snipers survive, they prevent the encirclement of entire battalions. I have a group of ten snipers in the 95th brigade who saved a battalion of 600 people from encriclement and death. This is the result of one day of their work.

So that’s how we realized that we have to create those groups everywhere where we can. And after that, I get sent this book, which had already written about all that. We arrived to this through experience. It was funny (laughs).

So we try our best to multiply those groups. For instance, we enlarged one of the groups from 6 people to 62 people, and we have many subgroups like that that work very effectively. So we do our best to supply everyone with everything they need. But when a sniper or a couple of snipers work alone and they want our help, we say, hey guys, sorry, but our priority are sniper groups. We support people like that if they are somewhere in hot spots like Bakhmut or other places where heavy fighting is going on. We support them, of course, because we don’t have the heart to refuse them. But we understand that it’s not right if only one sniper or two snipers are working in a team. There has to be a group of at least six.

Who makes a good sniper?

You have to be born a sniper. We have good snipers out of those guys who took part in the war since 2014. We also have good snipers who previously were hunters. And in the third place are sportsmen. Sportsmen need to actually do a lot to retrain. We actually retrained a biathlone world champion. It was hard for him to get used to the trigger of the sniper rifle, then it took a lot of time for him to learn how to actually get to the position without being noticed, and most importantly — how to leave the position without being noticed.

Most snipers with little experience were killed while they were leaving their position. The components of a successful sniper are:

• 20% — shooting ability, when you and the rifle become one, when you can breathe in the right way;
• 20% — camouflage on their positions;
• 20% — getting to the position without being noticed;
• 20% — leaving the position without being noticed;
• 20% — recon skills of a sniper.

Snipers direct artillery fire, they coordinate artillery. Often, it’s more advantageous not to shoot yourself but ask the artillery to hit the targets you have noticed. And to notice them, you need to think like a scout. This is easier for hunters than for athletes. Or a person is a warrior who shoots well and a sniper can grow from that.

Night snipers are mostly women

Snipers who work at night come from different professional backgrounds. There are those who were journalists, social activists. They have money for semi-automatic rifles, good night sights. And they shoot enemy groups every night. Most of these night snipers are girls. When it comes to long-range snipers, I have only three girls, but the night snipers are mostly women. And we support them first of all, respect their choice to go protect their homeland. We always give them the best sights, the best rifles. These girls can always address us and we will always help them. We respect everyone, all those experienced guys, but these girls are our top priority, we can’t refuse them. They are amazing, simply holy women.

And we are in awe of Olena’s boundless modesty, which I have seen in my life only in a few people of high spirit who were monks.
Friends, our snipers are truly a model of humanity and worthy of our all-round continuous support!!!⬇️https://t.co/xecJf41QyH 5/5 pic.twitter.com/Zpu2LzCuYR

— Yuri Chornomorets (@Y_Chornomorets) July 6, 2023

So these night snipers, what distance do they shoot?

600 meters. But we give them equipment for shooting within 800 meters. We also have night vision for snipers that can help them reach 1 km. The Ukrainian army has better equipment and night vision. The Serge Marko Group has rifles that allow them to eliminate targets within 1.5 or 2 km range during night time. It depends heavily on the scopes they use. We do all we can, our guys can shoot at 1 km at night. To raise that number to 2 km, we would need to supply them with scopes that cost $17,000 instead of $4,000, but this is not justified. But every group has night vision scopes that help strike targets 1 km away, or night vision add-ons. If your group doesn’t have that equipment, it is simply exposed to a deadly threat and can be eliminated.

We also equipped the machine guns accompanying this group with night vision. They have to be ready for an unexpected night attack.These sights cost $3,700. It’s not that expensive, actually. And the machine gunners can fire during the day with these night vision scopes. All of our scopes work two-way like that. Sometimes we have a situation when you just can’t spot a Russian amid the trees and bushes. You can see some wind blowing, but you don’t know if there is a movement of anyone there. Then we just use thermal sights and our group understands if there is an enemy soldier there.

How many snipers have you supported during this war?

We bought 178 rifles and at least 100 sights. Around 50 rifles were supplied from the Ukrainian state, quite good ones, Barrets usually, but they didn’t have sights with them. And we equipped them with sights, this was very effective. More than 50 guys who became snipers, they just bought rifles. But they didn’t have money for sights, so they asked me to help them. Plus, we trained a lot of people. So, we helped more than 400 people. It is hard to say, because it depends on how you calculate it. I write down everything, but calculations are approximate… Sometimes I even forget that I already gave a sight for a guy. Sometime’s it’s funny: I contact him to give him a sight and he has one already. We have a lot of work.

We buy rifles and sights in Ukraine and in Western Europe. We equip sniper systems all the time. Very often, a rifle won’t show what it is capable of if you don’t work on improving it. So, we address professionals to remodel those rifles; this takes 2-7 days. The rifle gets perfected and shows its maximum. Sometimes, the guys say, hey, we need a Ruger 338 rifle with a range of 1.5 km. We go to the professionals, with the sights, silencers. They deconstruct and reassemble those rifles, and pick a special bullet for them. The outcome: we have a guy who shoots within a 2 km range.

So, we squeeze everything we can from those rifles, because they should be as effective as they can get. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, but it’s worth it.

“We want to stop the modern fascists”

An opinion exists, especially in religious circles, that war is bad. And it would be better if there just was no war, no matter what the peace is. Like, we should just stop shooting and that will be the lesser evil. What would you tell these people?

We want to stop the modern Hitler. We want peace. We don’t want war. And if the Russian front collapses and they just surrender, it would be better. We do our best to make them collapse morally, emotionally, so that these modern fascists would capitulate. I want to remind you that during World War I in 1917, the Russian front simply collapsed and they just went home. And now, all those Western-supplied weapons and missiles, they exert enormous pressure on them. Judging by their intercepted calls, we hear this is weighing on them. They are afraid of HIMARS, those missiles, and they complain about them.

And second, they say they are afraid of snipers. Wherever snipers appear, they start talking to each other, just saying that they need to leave their positions. It is very important to us: all those Western missiles, modern sniper rifles are tools that helps us reach a breaking point at the front. And this is paramount: a war dragging out for years like the war between Iraq and Iran is not the scenario we need. They had a war that lasted for nine years, and millions of people died. Why do we need a war like that in Europe? I do not understand. We need this war to stop this year. And one of the tools that helps us to achieve that, to pressure them, is the work of our snipers.

Russians believe in their propaganda. They became barbarians under the influence of their propaganda. Wherever they come, they want to destroy and kill. To stop such fascists, we need to apply this restricted violence. In a way, we are like the police of the civilized world that stops a criminal. And the faster we do that, the better, because fewer people will die, not only Ukrainians but Russians too. And this will help them to understand that they have to change. They have to transform their state and their mindset.

This is very important. Russians will never become a nation like the Germans, who underwent denazification and are an inherent nation of the Western world. But the time will come and they can change; they can become some peaceful nation, like the Mexicans, who have their national cuisine, spirit, their traditions — everything they love. But attacking other countries wouldn’t be a part of their culture anymore.

It’s vital that they arrive at this normalization faster. And snipers help us push them in that direction, to realize that they are a wealthy country, that they don’t have to attack anyone and can live like people in Saudi Arabia. “Why should we attack anyone? We can live like a normal society without any aggression. Why should we and others suffer?” That’s what Russians should eventually come to think.

Actually, Ukrainians are not the only victim of Russian aggression; the Russians themselves are, too. It’s phenomenal: they simply expose themselves to suffering. This is avoidable, and we have to stop that. And this can be stopped if they capitulate. There is no other way.

Question from Euromaidan Press patron: Where, how do you get support buying ammunition daily? Is there no military supply?

The army also does a lot. Very often we create a sniper group, and half of that is supplied by the Ukrainian Army. Mainly thanks to US President Biden. And we supply the other half.

So every time the army can cover those expenses and supply those groups, they do it. But when it is already clear that the state is not coping, I don’t know why, society joins the efforts. Ukraine is a bright illustration of how effective civil society defending itself can be. Defending Ukraine is not only the responsibility of the state, it’s everyone’s business.

How can Ukraine’s international friends best support you and Ukrainian snipers?  

First of all, donate to my PayPal: all the money is used for helping them, without any expenses for operations. The more we fundraise, the more capable, professional people can receive the weapons and ammunition we buy in the EU and Ukraine. 

Also, of course, I would really like you to encourage your governments to help Ukraine more.

A great European war is going on now in Ukraine, a war of barbarism against civilization. It must end this year because otherwise, it will undermine the entire world order, the entire global economy, all the balances that exist in the world, in Europe. It is more beneficial to invest more in helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine now, while our professional military has not yet been killed, so this war does not drag on for ten years and doesn’t exhaust the entire region and, more broadly, the entire Western world. 

It seems that now that Ukraine needs huge resources, the same F-16s, the same deliveries of some sniper rifles by the hundreds… but in fact, this is not that much compared to the efforts that would have to be made, first, to support Ukraine if the war suddenly drags on for ten more years, and secondly, compared to the efforts that would have to be spent on the problems caused by both the food crisis and the migration crisis as a result of the food crisis in many countries.

We all live in a small village, where everything is interconnected, and if such a huge battle takes place in one of the houses, then accordingly, it can affect the whole world very negatively.

We must not leave unprovoked aggression unpunished. This is very important. The subject who started the unprovoked aggression, a barbarian who puts destruction as his highest value, must see the limits, where the civilized world says, “No, we will not allow such barbarism and unprovoked aggression, and we will accordingly punish this crime.” This is necessary so that the terrorist state sees the adequate reaction of the world community.

This is a war of a terrorist state against the victim of aggression, which did not provoke this aggression in any way, but on the contrary, has pursued a policy of constant concessions for decades.

Russians have become such ultra-fascists, rejecting all rational reasons and praising naked violence as the ultimate value; it is considered a criterion of truth, and accordingly, we see all this in Russian reality, in Russian propaganda. 

So, of course, we would like all Western societies to put pressure on their governments to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine more, and civil societies, everyone could also unite.

And if ordinary citizens of the West cannot buy tanks for the Armed Forces of Ukraine or planes, it is legally difficult, then purchasing the best available sniper rifles is absolutely possible.  

They must confront this terrorist state that preaches that violence is a very good thing.

And this will also be an important factor in defeating this fascist aggressor. It seems to me that it is extremely important now to unite and provide such popular assistance.

Support Yuriy Chornomorets' mission to help Ukrainian snipers via Paypal: [email protected] and follow his twitter, where he shares the latest updates and needs.

Alya Shandra talked with Yuriy Chornomorets; Serge Havrylets translated the conversation,

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