Ukrainians are now stocking up on semiautomatic – Latest News
From the gun cupboard of his capturing vary, Volodymyr Sukhomlyn pulls out a semiautomatic shotgun.
In pre-war Ukraine, such weapons have been standard as sporting weapons, used for looking duck, hares and the odd fox.
Today they are in demand in opposition to a new lethal predator within the sky — which, not like the native buzzards and eagles, preys on people quite than animals.
Zaporizhzhia is now tormented by Russian FPV or First-Person-View drones, which permit a pilot to fly a bomb immediately onto a goal.
They can buzz over a fight zone like giant mosquitoes, earlier than swooping down and blowing their victims to items.
The most secure response is usually to sprint for canopy — however in expert palms, a shotgun would possibly simply take one out.
Since FPVs started prowling Zaporizhzhia’s southern outskirts this summer time, Sukhomlyn has been doing a roaring commerce promoting 12-gauge and 20-gauge fashions to residents, who buy them as a last line of protection.
“When the war first broke out, it was mainly rifles that people wanted,” Sukhomlyn, a 46-year-old father of three, instructed The Post.
“Now it’s shotguns that are in demand. If you train properly, your chances of bringing an FPV down are quite high. Although it may come for you while you try to shoot it, so you need a very steady nerve.”
Demand to increase
A metropolis of 750,000, Zaporizhzhia sits on the River Dnipro in japanese Ukraine and is a key industrial hub.
Capturing it might be a main prize for Vladimir Putin, though 4 years into the warfare, the closest Russian troops nonetheless stay round 20 miles south-east.
In the meantime, they are harassing town from the air, sending in FPVS, missiles and Iranian-made shaheed drones — gasoline-powered UAVs that emit a lawnmower-like wine.
Zaporizhzhia gunshop proprietor Volodymyr Sukhomlyn is pictured in his underground capturing vary with a Turkish-made Hatsan Escort shotgun used to shoot down drones on Sunday, September 6, 2026. Obtained by the NY Post
Last week, an in a single day shaheed salvo landed a mile from the lodge I used to be staying in, wrecking a giant shopping center.
It was the third mall to be hit in two months, together with assaults on gasoline stations, espresso stands and personal houses.
Sukhomlyn jokes that his capturing vary, in an underground basement of an outdated Soviet industrial property, “is one of the few safe places to be.”
Many of his guests are troopers training their capturing expertise.
Because of the drone risk, out of doors rifle ranges are off limits.
Zaporizhzhia gunshop proprietor Volodymyr Sukhomlyn’s weapons are pictured in his underground capturing vary on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Zaporizhzhia. Obtained by the NY Post
His vary is supplied for simulating city fight situations, with a bullet-ridden outdated Lada hatchback that guests can follow capturing round.
As is proven by shotgun cartridges that now litter the ground, FPVs are a growing risk.
Shotguns stand more probability of bringing them down, as they fire pellets that spray over a large space, and are already utilized by troops on the frontline.
Thus has a gun based mostly on the old-school blunderbuss approach discovered a new place in twenty first century warfare.
Sukhomlyn expects civilian demand to increase because the drone risk will get worse.
Map exhibiting Russian-controlled Ukraine territory amid the continuing Ukraine War.
“To start off, it was mainly people living in the countryside on the southern outskirts of Zaporizhzhia who were buying shotguns,” he mentioned.
“Rather a lot of them are farmers, and a few even keep one of their tractor or mix harvester after they’re out within the fields.
Not an simple goal
“But more recently it’s been bus drivers and cabbies buying them, too — anyone who is out on the streets a lot.”
One FPV assault this month injured a number of people at a grocery store, leaving the ground stained with blood.
Another ploughed into the higher flooring of a authorities building downtown.
“I heard it coming and we had to hide in a shop when it exploded,” mentioned Julia Sologub, 31.
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“It used to be just a problem for soldiers — now it’s one for civilians, too.”
Some Ukrainian capturing ranges now offer computer-simulated coaching programs for capturing down FPVs, utilizing VR headsets.
Even with a shotgun, although, FPVs might be more durable to hit than the wiliest grouse: they will weave and duck round, and a few can journey at 100 mph or more.
Hitting one may detonate the payload, which might be harmful whether it is already very close.
Indeed, anybody who shoots down an FPV drone with a shotgun has arguably bagged the kill of a lifetime.
At Sukhomlyn’s primary gun store downtown, an FPV that one native shot down has pleasure of place on the wall — simply as a lion’s head may need achieved within the days of massive sport looking.
However, “Pip,” a US army volunteer serving with Ukraine’s Armed Forces, doesn’t advocate making an attempt to bag one as a trophy.
He was as soon as chased by an FPV as he drove his vehicle from the battlefield, and remembers it being one of probably the most terrifying experiences of his time in Ukraine.
“We were just about to reach for our shotgun, but then luckily the drone ran out of battery and crashed to the ground. You can bring one down with a shotgun, but it’s certainly not easy. It all depends on the distance, the skill of the enemy pilot — and your own nerves.”
