The territorial defence troops in the Russia-occupied region of Kherson have been armed with Mosin’s rifles which Russia’s Imperial Army first used in 1891, says Alexey Akutin, a representative of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Photo: Akutin's Telegram channel
“The Kherson territorial defence has been armed with Mosin’s rifles. From my experience, it’s a deadly weapon. Our sniper once hit the gas tank of a Ukrainian car from 500 metres away with it. So, jokes aside, it’s a good weapon if used by an experienced rifleman!” he wrote.
The Mosin’s rifle, colloquially known in the West as Mosin-Nagant, was developed in the late 19th century and was actively used until the 1950s. The Soviet army used those in WW2 because the USSR failed to complete its planned re-equipment programme and provide automatic arms to its combatants.
The British intelligence reported earlier that the Russian army was equipping the mobilised with AKMs, a weapon first introduced in 1959. AKM fires 7.62mm ammunition while Russia’s regular combat units are mostly armed with 5.45mm AK-74M or AK-12 rifles.
