US sniper with Ukraine’s International Legion on what makes this war different
Ukrainian-language report (UNIAN): Sampson on trench warfare, mining, and how fighting in Ukraine differs from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaking to UNIAN, Matthew Sampson, a former U.S. Marine Scout Sniper who volunteered with Ukraine’s International Legion (GUR) after arriving in May 2022, explains how the fight in Ukraine bears little resemblance to his earlier combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The biggest shock, he says, was trench warfare: U.S. forces don’t train for it, drilling instead on clearing rooms and corridors, “but they usually have doors.” And where American units expect overwhelming firepower, the Ukrainian front is often a near-even fight.
“The American approach usually has plenty of resources. But here there are almost none, the forces on the front are often roughly equal. Honestly, we’re not used to that.”
He describes hard-won lessons working alongside Ukrainian operators, including disagreements over the right way to clear a room, where, he concedes, the Ukrainian method often made more sense given how little margin there was for error.
Reported in Russian by UNIAN; quotes translated to English.