A female Russian sniper responsible for the deaths of more than 40 people has been captured after being left for dead by her comrades on the battlefield.
Irina Starikova — codenamed “Bagheera”, after the black panther of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book — has served with the separatist forces in Donetsk since 2014.
She had been sought by the Ukrainians for years over her alleged role in a war crime involving the shooting of prisoners. Starikova, 41, is originally from Serbia and was reported to be divorced with two daughters in local media reports.
Announcing her capture, the Ukrainian army said that she had the “blood of at least 40 people on her hands, including civilians”. It added that anyone “who kills peaceful people on our land can expect retribution”. The statement was accompanied by three pictures of Starikova and her military papers.
Ukrainian forces found her lying wounded on the battlefield and took her to a hospital where she was treated, according to Vlad Ivanov, a volunteer fighter. She reportedly said that her fellow fighters had abandoned her, “knowing that I was injured and having the opportunity to pick me up, they simply decided to leave me there, hoping I would die”.
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Bagheera has gained notoriety in Ukraine since 2014, when she was accused of killing Ukrainian prisoners of war in Donetsk. Her background is subject to speculation and rumour. A 2018 report by Radio Liberty Ukraine claimed that she was a former handball player who became an abbess after receiving a conviction for drug trafficking.
Russia has a long history of deploying female snipers to the battlefield. Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who fought with the Red Army in the Second World War, was said to have claimed the lives of 309 German soldiers, giving her the nickname “Lady Death”. Female snipers were graduates of the Central Women’s School For Sniping Training, near Moscow, commanded by female Spanish Civil War veterans.
