'I'm alive': Former Canadian Forces sniper debunks rumours of his death in Ukraine
CBC
A former Canadian Armed Forces sniper now fighting Russian forces in Ukraine says he was the last to learn of his own death.
The former CAF member — who goes by the nom de guerre Wali — told CBC News he returned to a safe location in Ukraine Monday after a week spent battling Russian forces on the front lines in the Kyiv region. When he turned on his phone, he discovered hundreds of urgent messages from people convinced he'd been killed in action.
His wife, father, friends and total strangers sent frantic messages trying to confirm he was still alive. His former commander in Kurdistan, who fought with Wali against ISIS, sent a note saying the community sacrificed a sheep in his honour.
"I'm alive, as you can see," Wali said in a video call Tuesday. "Not a single scratch."
"I'm pretty much the last person to know about my death."
Misinformation about Wali's record has been circulating online for weeks — including claims that he was the deadliest sniper in the world and held a record for the longest-distance kill shot. VKontakt, a Russian social media site, posted that Wali had been killed by Russian special forces 20 minutes after he arrived in Mariupol, now under siege by Russian forces.
"I've never seen Mariupol in my life," Wali said (CBC News has agreed to identify him only by his alias to protect his family's safety).
"I don't understand why they are doing this because it's so amateur."
He called the lies "obvious" and said rumours of soldiers' deaths can easily be refuted within days. Reuters reported that the Tennessee National Guard debunked false claims last week by Russia's Pravda newspaper that three American veterans had been killed in Ukraine.
Wali — who joined Ukraine's defence along with another Canadian veteran who goes by the nickname "Shadow" — said he's not the deadliest sniper in the world and holds no records. Just a few weeks ago, he said, he was working as a computer programmer in Canada and wasn't actively training.
WATCH: Former Canadian forces sniper offers proof-of-life from Ukraine
"I'm a good sniper," said Wali. "Nothing less, nothing more ... I didn't kill any Russians yet. I help doing so because the sniper is doing a lot of observation, reporting."
Wali said that, over the past week, he's seen Russian forces indiscriminately shelling everything in their path.
"They use a lot of artillery and rifles and shelling," he said. "They just shoot everywhere.
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