A feared Canadian sniper has shut down claims he was killed in Ukraine but has revealed he was nearly blown up by a Russian tank that shelled the room next to his.
Last week rumours began circulating online that the former Canadian Forces sniper, known only as Wali, was killed while fighting Russian troops near Kyiv.
In a Facebook post and a subsequent interview, Wali, who travelled to Ukraine to answer President Volodymyr Zelensky’s calls for foreign fighters, confirmed he was alive and continuing with the fight.
In a Facebook post which included a picture of himself lying in a ball pit while holding a rifle, he wrote: ‘I am alive.
‘The rumors that I died in the fight were completely ridiculous. The truth is we have taken the enemy’s ground in addition to causing him losses. Unfortunately, we also lost comrades, dead and injured.
‘The Russians are afraid of a close fight. They prefer to bomb, over and over again, destroying houses, such as frustrated thugs.’
The sniper-turned-filmmaker from Montreal uses the name given to him by the Afghan people while he was on one of two tours of duty with the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment, so as not to be identified by Vladimir Putin who he fears may target his family in Canada.
Speaking to Canada’s Global News this week, Wali said he is ‘well-fed, rested and all good’.
‘I was the last person to learn the news that I was dead,’ he added.
‘I think it’s just trolling. But I think it’s strange because after a while the enemy will lose credibility with this propaganda. I don’t understand why they push such lies. It’s pretty obvious because after a few days I’m popping out and telling everyone I’m alive.
‘Maybe the next time [the Russians] say that I’m dead it might be true but no one will believe them.’
Wali, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq during the 2010s, said he has been fighting alongside the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kyiv region and revealed he was nearly blown up when he engaged in a battle with Russian troops who shot at the room next to him – about three metres away – with shells from a tank.
‘We were lucky,’ he added. ‘Now I know how it feels to be engaged by a tank.’
He also revealed one of his colleagues was shot during one of the first patrols he was part of in Ukraine, but survived.
Wali, who left behind a fiancée, one-year-old son and a comfortable life as an IT programmer to answer Ukraine’s plea for foreign recruits, said the war in Ukraine is unlike any other warzones he has been to.
‘Most combat zones have no electricity and no water and it’s chaos. If you go in the centre [in Kyiv], it’s alright’, he told Global News.
‘In one of the patrols I was in an amazing condo — you could have the same one in Toronto.’
He described the war effort as being ‘amateur’ and said the Russians ‘don’t have the capabilities of NATO forces’.
Wali previously described the moment he answered the call to join the Ukrainian volunteer forces as being ‘like a firefighter who hears the alarm ringing.’
He crossed into Ukraine on March 1, and said he and the three other former Canadian soldiers who made the journey with him were greeted with hugs, handshakes, flags and photos by Ukrainians after they crossed the frontier.
Wali honed his sharpshooting skills during a 12-year career in the Canadian army.
He was first deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 when he spent six months fighting alongside US troops in Kandahar, returning a year or so later to mentor Afghan police.
After leaving the military, Wali embarked on his first stint as a freedom fighter in 2015, joining up with Kurdish forces for four months as they battled ISIS terrorists in northern Iraq.
In June 2017, one of his comrades reportedly shot dead an Islamic State terrorist from an incredible distance of 3,450m – more than two miles away for the longest ever kill shot.
VIDEO: Wali grants a live interview on the situation in Ukraine
