Ukraine Snipers Shoot Russian Soldiers During Practice Session, Kyiv's Special Operations Forces Say

KEY POINTS

The military command learned that Russians were planning an offensive in an unspecified area
Snipers began practising targets, while some were ordered to move to the front line for observation
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that there are no signs Putin will change his goal

Video footage released by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine (SOF) revealed that a practice session of Kyiv's snipers has led to the deaths of Russian soldiers.

According to Ukraine's military, Russians were informed about the possible work of two Ukrainian snipers after the latter were ordered to move to the front line for observation, Pravda reported.

"It became clear from radio interception that the enemy was informed about the possible work of our snipers, but the phrase 'warned - armed' did not work this time," the SOF wrote on Telegram [Google Translate showed].

"After discovering two Russian soldiers, our snipers eliminated one of them. After that, two more fighters came to the aid of the enemy. As a result, four corpses of the occupiers decorated the landscape on one of our defensive lines," the post read.

The SOF also said the military command learned that the Russians were planning an offensive in that area. However, the location of the practice was not known.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said recently "there are no signs that President Putin has changed his goal of dominating Ukraine."

"He is ready to sacrifice tens of thousands of Russian soldiers in this completely unjustified war. He has mobilized more than 200,000 troops, and plans to mobilize even more, and [he] is actively working to get more weapons from other authoritarian states such as Iran and North Korea.," Stoltenberg said in an interview with German outlet Welt.

Stoltenberg also said the risk of Russia using nuclear weapons was low at the moment despite several rumors.

"But Russian nuclear rhetoric is irresponsible. It's dangerous. Russia must know that a nuclear war can never be won, and therefore it should never happen. Of course, we are very closely monitoring what Russia is doing, and so far we do not see any changes in the Russian nuclear forces. If this were the case, we would certainly react," he said.

Stoltenberg's comments came as Germany announced Wednesday it would provide the Ukrainian armed forces with Leopard-2 main battle tanks.

"The Federal Government has decided to provide the Ukrainian armed forces with Leopard-2 main battle tanks. This is the result of intensive consultations with the closest European and Germany's international partners," stated the government's website.