It was Christmas Eve, and the Alberta-born sniper was sitting alone in an abandoned apartment on the fifth floor of a building in the battle-ravaged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. His .50-calibre rifle was leaning across an ironing board and a desk, pointed out a blown-out window toward the Russian front line.
The next 24 hours, according to the Albertan – whose code name is “Teflon” – were the bloodiest of his military career. He says he shot and killed 15 Russian soldiers on Dec. 24 as the enemy continued to move toward his sniper position in small groups, long after the deaths of their comrades should have persuaded them to change tactics and to approach from a different direction.
Although the specifics of Teflon’s account are impossible to verify, a Globe and Mail analysis of photos shared by Teflon – including one taken down the scope of his sniper rifle – geolocated him to an upper-storey window in an apartment building on the eastern edge of Bakhmut. The photos, which included the view over a thatch of small houses whose roofs were all damaged by the fighting, were taken during the Christmas period. One video the sniper shared showed a fire in part of the building Teflon was geolocated to, after an apparent Russian counterattack on his position.
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