Olivier Lavigne-Ortiz — dubbed by the British press the “deadliest sniper in the world” — has reportedly told Quebec news outlet La Presse in a video interview Monday that he was “the last to learn of his own death.”
The 40-year-old Quebec soldier, who left in early March to join Ukrainian forces on the frontlines, told La Presse that Russians fired at him for three days, but that he had returned from his first mission near Kyiv unscathed.
“I saw a ball of fire pass by three metres from my head. It was surreal,” he told La Presse.
Known by his 40,000-person Facebook following as “Wali,” Lavigne-Ortiz has fought and documented his time in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and now Ukraine on his online blog.
But after his posting went dark last week, rumours of his supposed demise started circulating widely on Russian social media sites such as VKontakt.
“Canadian sniper, which propaganda called the ‘deadliest sniper in the world’… killed by Russian special forces in Mariupol 20 minutes after landing,” read one post by the administrator of a Russian nationalist group.
The post was “liked” more than 12,000 times, and would go on to appear on countless other channels.
But loved ones insisted Lavigne-Ortiz was alive, while others discounted the Russia reports as wartime propaganda.
By Monday, the Star was receiving messages from the Facebook page where Lavigne-Ortiz runs his blog, and from his personal email account.
“I’m alive,” said an email. “Combats were intense. We took ground from the enemy.”
But the La Presse interview marks the first public, visual confirmation that he remains alive.
A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said it hadn’t been informed of any Canadian volunteer fighters dying in Ukraine.
A Facebook post by the Norman Brigade, the group with which Wali said he was travelling, Friday had also said they believed Wali to be alive.
“The rumours about his death started to appear around March 13th and the Norman Brigade’s commanding officer has allegedly communicated with him on March 15 in the morning,” reads a portion of the post to the brigade’s Facebook group. “Until proven the contrary, he is alive and well.”
The post went on to say that, although the Norman Brigade believe Wali to be alive, they have parted ways with him due to the media attention he garnered.
“Wali is a free spirit and I had to send him to another unit of his choice because he was bypassing clear instructions and OPSEC guidelines,” a statement coming from the brigade commander says. “This is not a game. He was becoming a danger for the mission , for his family and for himself.”
Wali recounted a different version of events to La Presse.
“I was the one who left,” he said. “They were very happy that I did some promotion for them when it came time to recruit.”
