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Oleksandr Shamshur, 41, is a hairdresser by day and a “drone hunter” by evening – one among tens of hundreds of volunteers serving to defend the skies over Ukraine in opposition to Russian assaults.
Because the February 24 first anniversary of Russia’s invasion nears, Ukraine is changing into more and more adept at capturing down Russian missiles and drones fired at cities removed from the entrance strains, and Shamshur takes pleasure in his function.
Members of his territorial defence unit, who embody a lawyer and a businessman, reply to air raid alerts in and across the capital, Kyiv, by looking for to down Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones with a restored World Conflict II machinegun.
“I’m a really glad individual. Why? As a result of I’m defending my nation, I’m defending our Ukrainian folks,” Shamshur stated as he combed the capital’s moonlit skyline by a thermal digicam with a spread finder from his place on a rooftop.
Close by, a fellow fighter was adjusting the inexperienced barrels of the Soviet-made “Maxim” machinegun.
“However on the identical time, I can come to the sweetness salon and work with the folks, do the work I do know, lower hair and speak to shoppers,” he stated.
He stated it by no means occurred to him as a civilian to “run away and conceal someplace” when Russian armoured forces stormed right into a surprised Ukraine final winter and commenced bombarding Kyiv and different cities.
“With the enemy on the doorstep, I needed to do one thing, I needed to act in defence,” he stated.
Through the evening of December 29-30, Shamshur stated, his rooftop unit shot down two drones over Kyiv. His crew members have additionally handed the talents they’ve discovered on to different models.
Shamshur sports activities a number of badges on his camouflage uniform, together with one which reads “Drone Hunters” in English, and one other in Ukrainian studying “Ronin” – a feudal Japanese warrior – that he has adopted as his nom de guerre.
When Russia invaded, Shamshur – a military reservist earlier than the warfare – discovered that his army base had already been destroyed by Russian shelling, so he joined territorial defences, initially delivering meals to civilians and serving to evacuate folks.
At work in his salon, nonetheless carrying army khaki as he styled a shopper’s hair, he stated he tries to not speak to his shoppers in regards to the warfare, calling it “darkish” in distinction to the “mild” within the peaceable a part of his life.
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