While at work in his salon, still wearing military khakis as he styled a client’s hair.
Kyiv:
Barber by day and “drone hunter” by night, 41-year-old Oleksandr Shumshur is among thousands of volunteers helping to defend Ukraine’s skies against Russian attacks.
As the 24-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches, Ukraine is becoming increasingly adept at shooting down Russian missiles and drones that are fired into cities far from the front lines, and Shumshur is increasingly taking up his role. proud of.
Members of his regional defense unit, including a lawyer and a businessman, are responding to an air raid alert in and around the capital Kiev seeking to shoot down an Iranian-made Shaheed-136 drone with a World War II machine gun.
“I am a very happy person. Why? Because I am defending my country, I am defending my Ukrainian people,” Shamshur observed the capital’s moonlit skyline through a thermal camera with a range finder from his position on the roof. Saw.
Nearby, a fellow fighter was adjusting the green barrel of a Soviet-made “Maxim” machine gun.
“But at the same time I can come into the beauty salon and work with people, do the work that I know, get haircuts and talk to customers,” Shamshur said.
He said it never occurred to him, as a civilian, to “run away” when thousands of Russian armed forces entered chaotic Ukraine last winter and began bombing Kiev and other cities. And hide somewhere”.
“At the enemy’s door, I had to do something, I had to man the defence,” he said.
During the night of 29–30 December, Shumshur said, his rooftop unit shot down two drones over Kiev. His team has also passed on the skills they learned to other units.
Shumshur wears several badges on his camouflage uniform, including one, “Drone Hunters” in English, and another in Ukrainian reading “ronin”—a feudal Japanese warrior—whom he has adopted as his nom-de-guerre.
When Russia invaded, Shumshur – an army reservist before the war – learned that his military base had already been destroyed by Russian shelling, so he became involved in regional security, initially delivering food and supplies to civilians. Helped people get out.
At work in his salon, styling a client’s hair while still wearing military khakis, he said he tries not to talk about the war with his clients, calling it a “light” on the peaceful part of their lives. The opposite says “dark”. ,
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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