An exotic handgun was spotted in the arsenal of Zelensky’s bodyguards

The officer armed with the apparent Alien pistol was part of the protective detail that accompanied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Head of the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Budanov.

The War Zone reported this with reference to a blogger who identified the pistol.

During Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Zmiinyi Island on July 8, an unusual and rare Alien 9 mm pistol manufactured by the Slovak arms company Laugo Arms was spotted on the belt of one of the service members.

It is not confirmed which unit the owner of this weapon belongs to. Both officers of the Security Services of the President unit and officers of the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence who arrived together with Budanov could have been on the island.

Laugo Arms Alien has characteristic shapes and appearance, so it is difficult to confuse it with anything.

The weapon’s design features are due to an unusual design with a low bore axis design that inherently helps with accuracy and mitigating felt recoil.

The pistol is equipped with a box magazine for 17 9×19mm rounds and a barrel length of 124 mm.

The unloaded pistol weighs 1,020 grams, which is much more than its 9 mm “classmates”, such as the Austrian Glock 17, the weight of the latest versions of which is almost half as much. Such a weight is more typical for pistols of larger calibers, but it also gives certain advantages, because the greater weight minimizes the recoil for the shooter.

The pistol has a semi-movable bolt frame, a non-rotating bolt, and a barrel lowered to the maximum, which, as a whole, effectively minimizes the recoil energy from the shot and smoothly transfers it to the shooter’s palm, reducing recoil.

https://youtu.be/bTvvMeFh2xk

This pistol is quite rare and is valued at around five thousand dollars, which is five to ten times the cost of most semi-automatic pistols on the market.

Such weapons are not available to most Ukrainian military units, but the officers of the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine have the appropriate level of access to obtain them.

To date, Alien is not used by any large military or law enforcement structure in the world. However, it is reported that it is used by special forces in single copies, and it is also common among sports shooters.