She shot them both despite officer telling her: 'I have a wife and a child'

He told how she executed two PoWs during battle for disputed Ukraine city

Her husband claims Kiev government has a $200,000 bounty on her head

Before the war, Oksana Gimrakova was a tax collector for the Ukrainian government and had never held a gun in her life.

A year later, after joining the separatist army of the Donetsk People's Republic, she is her unit's most feared sniper.

'I have killed 24 Ukrainians,' the 28-year-old mother boasted.

'And they are offering $200,000 for her head,' her husband Ruslan added with a grin.

While the veracity of the reward figure proved difficult to confirm, the husband and wife do appear prominently on the Ukrainian anti-terrorist watch list Peacemaker.

Pro-Russian sniper Oksana Gimrakova flashes the victory sign during an interview with MailOnline in which she tells how she went from a tax collector to one of the most feared snipers in the separatist army in Ukraine

Prize target: Mrs Gimrakova stands beside an armoured vehicle with her husband Ruslan, who claims the Kiev government have placed a $200,000 bounty on the 28-year-old mother's head

Crack shot: Mrs Gimrakova claims she has killed 24 Ukrainians during the 15-month conflict in the country

A picture of the couple on their wedding day which appears on Ukrainian anti-terrorist watch list Peacemaker

The site features pictures and information culled from the couple's social media pages. They are represented as 'fighters of an illegal military group.'

Photographs of their wedding day are interspersed with Hollywood-esque shots of the pair posing with weapons.

In addition to the 24 official kills claimed by Oksana, there are at least two unofficial ones.

Plagued by nightmares, Ruslan confided that his wife had executed two prisoners of war during the battle for Mayorsk, a suburb of Horlivka.

One POW had been an officer, and the other, a 22-year-old infantryman like Ruslan himself.

'He begged for his life,' Ruslan continued. 'I have a wife and kid,' he pleaded.

'Oksana told him "No, you're guilty like the rest of them. I'm afraid for my own son.' Then she shot him and the other one.'

The executions characterise an increasingly bitter war now in its 15th month.

Soldiers from the separatist army of the Donetsk People's Republic in the disputed territory of Horlivka

Soldier play with stray dogs In the trenches of Horlivka, around 800 metres from the Ukrainian position

'There hasn't been a day of ceasefire here,' their company commander Aleksandr Shumakov insisted when asked about February's widely-ignored Minsk Protocol.

In the trenches of Horlivka, 800 metres from the Ukrainian position, the former businessman recalled an incident from the previous June.

One of the mines hit a car carrying a family. The mother and father were killed and the daughter was disfigured. I see her when I close my eyes – a girl with no face DPR Commander Aleksandr Shumakov

'Three trucks of UA soldiers got lost behind our lines.

'We stopped them and let them go. We even gave them directions back to their base.'

'Would you do that now?' I asked.

'No!' he replied.

'What changed?'

'Everything changed.'

It has gotten so bad, the weary commander admitted, that all prisoner exchanges in his sector have ceased.

When asked why, he recited a litany of accusations against his enemies.

They have tortured POWs, he claimed. They have targeted civilians with special shells that do not whistle as they fall.

They have placed anti-personnel mines in violation of international law.

Shumakov paused to compose himself.

Light-hearted: Platoon leader Gorlik gives a gold-toothed grin as members of the Donetsk People's Republic army climb to an isolated summit surrounded on three sides by Ukrainian army troops

'They will not capture us alive': DPR platoon leader shows the hand grenade he keeps in his pocket

'One of the mines hit a car carrying a family,' he recounted.

'The mother and father were killed, and the daughter was disfigured. I see her when I close my eyes – a girl with no face.'

Allegations of war crimes have been common across the Donbass region.

Several fighters I spoke with cited a video purporting to show members of the UA's Azov Battalion crucifying and then immolating a DPR supporter.

The UA insists that the video is a fake, staged by the separatists themselves.

Other soldiers in DPR-held Vuhlehirsk were eager to exhibit pavement strewn with nail-shaped shrapnel.

The tiny projectiles that 'fall like metal rain' are banned by the Geneva Conventions, they insisted.

'Doctors cannot find it in the body,' a local NCO explained. 'If you survive,' he joked, 'you will have much trouble getting through airport security.'

Battles continue to rage: Company commander Aleksandr Shumakov insists 'there hasn't been a day of ceasefire' when asked about February's widely-ignored Minsk Protocol

A DPR soldier on patrol on the outskirts of Horlivka in separatist-controlled territory in the Donetsk Oblast

All prisoner exchanges in the sector have ceased amid allegations of war crimes against troops and civilians

Back in Horlivka, I joined a small DPR patrol as they climbed to an isolated summit surrounded on three sides by UA forces.

We hustled, half-bent up the slope of a ridge, barely concealed from vigilant snipers occupying a landscape of abandoned factories below.

The plateau was so desolate and shell-blasted that even the area's ubiquitous stray dogs kept away.

Appropriately, soldiers called this position 'the s***'.

Even so, the men were in good spirits as they heated tins of stew and downed shots of black-market vodka.

'Don't tell our commander,' platoon leader Gorlik threatened with a wink and a gold-toothed grin.

Commander Alexandr Shumakov peers across no-man's land: He claims the Ukrainian army have been placing anti-personnel mines across the region in violation of international law

A soldier smokes a cigarette on a desolate plateau in Horlivka which the troops appropriately call 'the s***'

Before drinking, the former inmate emptied a few sips worth of vodka onto the dirt 'for the dead.'

He uttered their names. 'People call me enchanted,' the soldier continued.

'Three of my friends died beside me last month in an infantry attack.'

He pointed into the distance towards a low hill marked by the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian banner. 'It happened there.'

Soldiers in the DPR-held city of Vuhlehirsk were eager to show nail-shaped shrapnel, tiny projectiles banned by the Geneva Convention which they claims are being fired by the Ukrainian army

An abandoned factory on the outskirts of the warn-torn city of Horlivka in eastern Ukraine

His comrades had chosen death over being taken prisoner, Gorlik explained.

'We know what happens to prisoners,' he continued, describing mutilated corpses that he claimed his unit recovered.

'They cut off their fingers, tongues, and c****,' he asserted.

Gorlik reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a hand grenade. Every man there reached into his own pocket and did the same.

Gorlik dangled the metal bulb daintily between us.