Direct proof of use
Conflict Armament Research documented eight 7.62x54 mm R SVD designated marksman rifles in Ukraine between December 2018 and September 2019 during field investigations of materiel recovered from armed formations in the Donetsk and Luhansk conflict environment. The rifles were documented in Severodonetsk, Paraskoviivka, Druzhkivka, and Mariupol, and Ukrainian government trace responses told CAR that the rifles had not been in Armed Forces of Ukraine service and were not recorded as stolen, lost, written off, or transferred to other Ukrainian military units.
CAR's physical examination tied several of the rifles to sniper use rather than mere possession. Three of the eight SVD rifles had been modified to accept sound moderators, and one rifle had camouflage tape on its PSO-1 sight. CAR assessed that such concealment and modification measures reflected specialist sniper or armourer work and that SVD rifles deployed in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk were frequently modified for sound moderators even when the moderators were not recovered with the rifles.
Sources: Weapons of the War in Ukraine
Timeline
The dated material record begins with CAR's December 2018 fieldwork in Severodonetsk, where the organization documented four SVD rifles. CAR then recorded two more SVD rifles in Paraskoviivka on 8 May 2019, one in Druzhkivka on 17 September 2019, and one in Mariupol on 18 September 2019.
The sniper-use record continued into the full-scale phase. American Rifleman reported in 2022 that a Ukrainian sniper was photographed with an SVDM in the Donbas in 2019, that an SVDM-armed Ukrainian sniper filmed an engagement through a thermal sight, and that older SVD rifles were still in the hands of many Russian snipers around the invasion. In October 2024, Ukraine's military intelligence service reported that Russia had equipped North Korean troops moved toward Ukraine with SVD and SVCh sniper rifles among other infantry weapons.
Sources: Weapons of the War in Ukraine, Sniping In Ukraine, GUR North Korean Troops Equipment
Narrative
In the Donbas phase, the SVD was part of a wider sniper and counter-sniper fight in trench conditions. Jamestown's 2020 Eurasia Daily Monitor analysis reported that both sides began the war using the Soviet SVD-63, while Russian SVDs were described as having newer barrels, PSO-3 scopes, and higher-quality rounds than worn Ukrainian stocks. The same analysis framed the SVD as increasingly limited for the long-range demands of the Donbas trench war, which pushed Ukrainian forces toward Western and Ukrainian replacement rifles.
The SVD's role in this conflict is therefore best described as legacy precision infantry fire. It supported observation, counter-sniper work, and squad- or platoon-level precision fire rather than replacing larger-caliber anti-materiel rifles or newer Western sniper systems. Kyiv Post's 2023 interviews with Ukrainian snipers described elite Ukrainian sniper teams as having largely moved away from Soviet/Russian SVD rifles in favor of modern Western rifles, a later-war shift that does not erase the SVD's documented Donbas use but narrows how current Ukrainian use should be described.
The Russian-side record is stronger for recovered Donbas materiel and later Russian issue. CAR's eight documented SVD rifles were recovered from armed formations in the Donetsk and Luhansk environment and were not traced to Ukrainian Armed Forces inventories. American Rifleman separately reported continued Russian sniper possession of older SVD rifles around the 2022 invasion, and Ukraine's GUR later named SVD/SVCh rifles among weapons issued to North Korean troops moved by Russia toward Ukraine.
Sources: The Role of Snipers in the Donbas Trench War, Kyiv Post Elite Snipers, Weapons of the War in Ukraine, Sniping In Ukraine, GUR North Korean Troops Equipment
