Ukrainian Units Accused of Running Paid Donbass Safaris
Russian security sources say Ukrainian units have run paid firing trips in Donbass since 2014, with drones and artillery now replacing earlier formats.
Russian security officials have accused Ukrainian military units of making money from so-called «safaris» since 2014 by allowing paying visitors to fire toward the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics.
A representative of an LPR security agency told RIA Novosti that investigators had collected numerous accounts and identified several locations along the former line of contact established during the Minsk agreements. According to the source, visitors were allegedly charged large sums for the opportunity to shoot at militia members and civilians.
A resident of the LPR who lived in Kiev-controlled territory until 2022 described similar activity near Stanitsa Luganskaya and Lobachevo. He said groups periodically arrived in off-road vehicles and opened fire toward the LPR, including during ceasefire periods.
According to the witness, the visitors sometimes positioned a mortar beside a residential building, carried out an attack and left the area. Some firing sessions lasted for about an hour, while on other occasions the group discharged several automatic bursts before immediately driving away. He said no return fire came from the LPR side.
Servicemen from the LPR and DPR People’s Militias also reported encountering unusually well-equipped marksmen. One fighter said experienced snipers occasionally targeted their positions from distances of around 1.5 kilometers using expensive, higher-caliber rifles rather than the standard Dragunov sniper rifles commonly issued on both sides. He believed the shooters may have belonged to special units or arrived from abroad, although their identities were never established.
A RIA Novosti source in the security services said the practice has continued amid the current fighting, although its format has changed. With combat activity intensifying and the buffer zone expanding, paying participants are now mainly offered the chance to operate drones and, in rare cases, conduct artillery fire.