— Olena Halushka (@OlenaHalushka) December 11, 2022

When his friends were asked why Szermeta, a man with no military training, would volunteer to fight for a neighboring country, they replied,

“He was a man of action, not of talk; it gave him great joy to help others.”  

The friend also noted that his wife and daughter were Ukrainian, and he wanted to help free their country.

This Video of Szermeta Features the International Language of Music

His Weapon

For those of you who are wondering what kind of weapon he is holding in the first photograph, that appears to be a Russian VKS suppressed sniper rifle. The VKS is a straight pull bolt action bullpup chambered for a 12.7x55mm STs-130 subsonic round.  It is also known as a VSSK or Vykhlop (Выхлоп), which translates to “exhaust” in English.  This unusual-looking heavy hitter was built for special forces units of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), the main successor of the former Soviet Union‘s KGB.