A Ukrainian soldier claims to have set a world record for the longest confirmed sniper kill, taking out two Russian soldiers from a distance of almost two and a half miles, the country’s military claims.
The gunman, part of Ukraine’s “Pryvyd” or “Ghost” sniper unit, killed two Russian soldiers with a single shot from 4,374 yards away, Ukrainian outlet Defense Express reported.
The shot was fired from a Ukrainian-made 14.5mm “Alligator” rifle, and was guided with the help of artificial intelligence and drones, according to Ukrainian reports.
A Ukrainian soldier in the sniper unit of the 108th Territorial Defense Brigade readies a rifle during training on Nov. 4, 2023. Anadolu via Getty ImagesVideo shows the moment the record was broken near the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine during fighting on Thursday.
“The record-breaking shot was made on Aug. 14, 2025, using artificial intelligence under the guidance of a UAV complex with a 14.5 mm Alligator rifle,” wrote military expert Yuri Butusov, who shared video of the shooting.
The previous world record was held by another Ukrainian sniper who took out a Russian soldier from nearly 2½ miles away with a high-tech rifle known as “Horizon’s Lord.” SBU“The bullet went through the window behind which the occupiers were standing,” he added.
Thursday’s shot reportedly beat the previous world record for confirmed sniper kill, which was also carried out by a Ukrainian soldier.
Ukrainian soldiers take part in a sniper shooting exercise at a training facility outside Kyiv on Nov. 21, 2023. AFP via Getty ImagesThat record of 4,156 yards (2.36 miles) was set in November 2023 by a 58-year-old veteran sniper from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) using a domestic “Lord of the Horizon” rifle.
Previously, an unidentified member of the Canadian Special Forces’ Joint Task Force 2 set a world record of 2.20 miles in Afghanistan in 2017.
The “Alligator” rifle that was used in Thursday’s successful kill is a magazine-fed, 14.5mm caliber sniper rifle a muzzle velocity of between 3,215 and 3,281 feet per second.
In 2021, its manufacturer, Kharkiv-based arms company XADO-Holding, said the “Alligator” had an effective range of 1.2 miles and was designed to disable equipment rather than target soldiers.
