Starving Russian soldiers are ‘cutting up and eating’ fellow troops amid ration shortages, an intercepted radio message appears to show.
Ukraine’s military intelligence force, the GUR released audio they claimed shows Russian servicemen in Zaporizhia ‘preparing to eat their “younger” henchmen’.
An intercept reportedly recorded a Russian saying: ‘We’ll eat each other, it’s all ****ed up here.
‘We’re already looking for someone younger. I’ve sharpened my knives.
‘I don’t give a **** who I have to cut up. I just want to eat. **** everyone else.’
Ukrainian forces said cannibalism is becoming ‘common practice’ among Russians due to the lack of food available for troops.
In June, the intelligence agency claimed they had intercepted a conversation which showed a Russian soldier who ate his ‘brother’ for two weeks.
In the recording posted by on Telegram, a Russian commander can be heard telling a subordinate that one soldier, referred to as ‘Brelok,’ killed and ate his fellow soldier ‘Foma’ over two weeks.
A commander can be heard saying: ‘Nobody ran away. ‘Brelok’ took him out and then ate him for two f*cking weeks.’
In May 2024, the Moscow Times reported that a Russian cannibal Dmitry Malyshev joined one of the country’s Storm V penal military units.
Malyshev fried the heart of one of the men that he killed, which he then seasoned with herbs and cooked with vegetables before eating.
Ukraine says they give Russian prisoners of war food three times a day – and invite Putin’s hungry troops to voluntarily surrender if they want to be fed.
Other convicts have been also been recruited by Moscow since the summer of 2022.
Prisoners were first promised a pardon after completing a six-month military contract.
However since January 2024, prisoner recruits no longer receive pardons but are released on parole, and are expected to stay in the ranks until the war’s end.
Russia has also made claims about a lack of critical supplies affecting Ukrainian morale.
Vladimir Putin told reporters at his end of year news conference that the number of Ukrainian army deserters is on the rise.
He claimed this was due to a severe shortage of food, water, clothing and ammunition.
The Russian president said: ‘Knowing they will simply be killed or destroyed, soldiers flee in an effort to stay alive.’
Fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region has seen the fastest Russian advances in recent months.
Three-quarters of the region has been occupied since 2022 and Putin’s troops are now 40km (25 miles) away from the city Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine are desperately trying to slow the advance and is building a line of defences.
Kyiv’s defence minister Denys Shmyhal said: ‘Work on the construction of fortifications continues in all front-line regions.’
According to the latest data from UK, Russian forces lost another 1,090 soldiers on the battlefield over the past day.
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