Wali, the famous Canadian sniper, has fled war-torn Ukraine..Wali stated he was almost killed "several times" during his tour in the beleaguered country. Wali travelled to Ukraine in April after acting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's appeal for foreign fighters join his soldiers in the fight against Russia..He escaped the war zone via neighbouring Poland and is now back in Quebec..The former Canadian soldier was employed as a software engineer when he left his family and job to join the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. The mercenary’s real name is a carefully guarded secret.."I'm lucky to still be alive, it really came close," Wali told the French newspaper, La Presse, from his Montreal home. .A former member of the Canadian Armed Forces who has also volunteered to fight with Kurdish militants in Iraq, he was described by Spanish media as “the best sniper in the world.”.He was celebrated by American military bloggers for “hilariously troll[ing]” Russia and praised by the New York Post for “grabbing anti-tank missiles in a warehouse to kill real people.” .Wali added that his last mission was in Donbas in a Ukrainian unit that was made up of conscripts. He recounted a disturbing incident with two Ukrainian conscripts that shook him up. Wali said he and the soldiers had just taken up a position close to a trench and were exposed to fire from Russian tanks when the two men decided to come out of their blankets to smoke a cigarette. ."I told them not to expose themselves like that, but they weren't listening to me," Wali told La Presse. Within seconds, "highly accurate" shellfire from a Russian tank exploded close by. "It exploded solid. I saw the shrapnel go by like lasers. My body tensed up. I couldn't hear anything. I immediately had a headache. It was really violent.".The two men were killed.."It smelled of death, it's hard to describe — it's a macabre smell of charred flesh, sulfur, and chemicals. It's so inhuman, that smell," Wali said. .Even though his motivation was to help Ukrainians, Wali said he pushed his luck.."I have no injuries. I say to myself, how far can I roll the dice? I don't want to lose what I have here," said Wali, often described as the world's deadliest sniper..Wali’s assessment of the deployment of Western volunteer fighters was one of disappointment..He, along with several other fighters, joined the Norman Brigade, a private volunteer unit based in Ukraine, led by another former soldier. Discipline broke down in the unit and a large number of volunteers quit the brigade.."Many volunteer fighters expect it to be turnkey, but war is the opposite, it's a terrible disappointment," added Wali, recounting that finding a gun itself was a challenge. "You had to know someone who knew someone who told you that in some old barbershop they would give you an AK-47," he said.."Many arrive in Ukraine with their chests bulging, but they leave with their tails between their legs," Wali told La Presse.
