“I was almost killed”: a US sniper on GUR service, special operations, and Bakhmut

In this November 2025 interview with the Ukrainian outlet 24 Kanal, Matthew Sampson — a former U.S. Marine Scout Sniper — describes commanding a multinational special-operations team inside Ukraine’s military-intelligence (GUR) International Legion, the grinding fight for Bakhmut, and the shrapnel wound that nearly ended his war.

He told 24 Kanal he spent more than two years on the ground, from May 2022 to February 2024 — what he calls the longest continuous U.S. combat deployment of the war — operating across the Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Donetsk regions, with extended time in and around Bakhmut through 2023.

“This was a piece of shrapnel that hit me near Bakhmut. Fortunately it passed through trees and bushes first — otherwise it would have killed me.”

Sampson said his team drew on 20 to 30 nationalities “from every continent except Antarctica,” and that getting foreign and Ukrainian operators onto the same tactics took work: “We had major disagreements between foreigners and Ukrainians about the correct way to enter a room.” His read on the enemy was blunt — that the Russian army is “so weak because it has massive corruption, no accountability and discipline.”

Interview conducted in Ukrainian and Russian by 24 Kanal; quotes translated to English.