Ukrainian military intelligence has accused a handful of Russian soldiers of resorting to cannibalism during the harsh winter, citing intercepts of officer communications and photographic evidence showing at least five alleged instances of infantrymen consuming the remains of fallen comrades.

The allegations emerge from Ukrainian cybersecurity specialists who recovered audio messages and photographs on Telegram while monitoring Russian military communications. The Sunday Times reviewed the materials, which Ukrainian intelligence claims document extreme cases of starvation along the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

In one documented case from November 2025, a soldier with the call sign Khromoy allegedly killed two comrades near Myrnohrad in Donetsk and attempted to cannibalize one of them. In audio messages reviewed by The Sunday Times, an unnamed officer reported to his deputy commander that Khromoy had “cut off a leg” and was using a meat grinder to prepare the flesh for consumption. When two soldiers were sent to investigate his whereabouts, Khromoy opened fire. He was subsequently killed.

The officer’s response to his superior captured the desperation: “All the guys are skinny. Everyone is on starvation rations.” When asked whether troops were being fed, the commander replied: “Ours will also soon start eating each other.”

The intercepts show at least three other conversations referencing cannibalism. In one April exchange, a soldier with the call sign Most complained of sharing a dugout with a comrade “who ate a corpse, human meat.” In another, a unit commander in Donetsk responded to accusations of cannibalism by sarcastically offering: “If you had said something, I would have given you a direction on where to go, where to get meat.”

The Russian Embassy in London dismissed the allegations as propaganda, saying they were “fabrications supplied by Ukrainian military intelligence.”

Historians note that cannibalism during wartime typically emerges only under conditions of extreme famine. During the Nazi blockade of Leningrad in World War II, police arrested as many as 2,000 people for consuming human flesh over a nearly 900-day siege.

The current allegations coincide with documented reports of severe logistical failures in the Russian military. Russian troops have complained of receiving expired rations — some dating to 2002 — and of being left without provisions for weeks. Captured Russian soldiers increasingly report starvation, with Ukraine’s “I Want To Live” surrender program recording 10,000 Russian defectors last year, many citing inadequate supplies.

Russia has expanded its military presence in Ukraine to approximately 710,000 soldiers by late 2025, up from 600,000 at the start of the year. Military analysts say the massive expansion of ground forces requires proportional increases in food and supplies — a challenge made acute by the particularly harsh winter and Ukrainian attacks on Russian logistics networks.

“Sustained offensive operations require a constant flow of supplies to the front line,” said Vikram Mittal, a U.S. military analyst. “The extreme weather will have placed strain on transportation networks and troop sustainment.”

Bradley Martin, a former U.S. naval captain and senior fellow at the Rand Corporation, said reports of poor supply provision to Russian infantry are credible, though he cautioned that Ukrainian intercepts require careful scrutiny. “The concept that logistics support for the Russian army is poor is wholly credible. Troop support is not a major priority of the Russian army,” Martin said.

Ukrainian military officials have noted the irony of the allegations: Russia is an agricultural nation with food supplies and easy drone access to the front lines. The cause of the shortages, they suggest, lies not in scarcity but in systemic failure and the deprioritization of soldier welfare within Russia’s military command structure.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)