A former sniper for the Canadian military known as one of the deadliest snipers in the world has travelled to Ukraine to help in the war against Russia, CBC News reported.

The sniper – who was given the nickname Wali in Afghanistan – was a soldier with the Royal 22nd Regiment.

Several days ago he responded to a call for help from Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Zelensky and during the night crossed the Polish border into Ukrainian territory.

Wali told the CBC that he made the trip with three other former Canadian soldiers.

He said that the Ukrainians they met “were so happy to have us. It's like we were friends right away."

Wali previously fought with Kurdish forces against ISIS in northern Iraq.

"I have to help because there are people here being bombarded just because they want to be European and not Russian,” he said.

Wali and other soldiers who have travelled to Ukraine are being housed in a partially renovated home, working with Ukrainian authorities to be placed in army battalions composed of citizen-soldiers. Ukraine aims to increase the battalions to 10,000 officers and 120,000 volunteers.

Wali had been working as a computer programmer and has a young family.

"A week ago I was still programming stuff," he said. "Now I'm grabbing anti-tank missiles in a warehouse to kill real people…That's my reality right now."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba put the number of foreigners who have travelled to Ukraine to fight at around 20,000, Fox News reported.