A handful of starving Russian troops fighting Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine have resorted to cannibalism, Ukrainian military intelligence officers have claimed
Starving Russian troops fighting on the front line in eastern Ukraine have resorted to cannibalism, according to claims by Ukrainian military intelligence.
A handful of Russian soldiers are alleged to have carried out the disturbing acts amid harsh winter conditions and food shortages on the front line. One Ukrainian official claimed there was evidence of at least five cases in which Russian infantrymen were said by fellow soldiers and commanders to have eaten their comrades.
Officials shared purported photographs and intercepted audio messages with The Sunday Times, claiming Ukrainian cybersecurity specialists uncovered the material while monitoring battlefield communications on the messaging app Telegram.
In one exchange dated to November 2025, an unnamed Russian officer allegedly told a deputy reconnaissance commander that a soldier, referred to by the call sign “Khromoy”, had killed two comrades and attempted to eat one of them while stationed near Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region.
According to the report, the incident was relayed to Lieutenant Razikov Vladislav Abdulkhalykovych, deputy commander of the 5th Brigade’s reconnaissance battalion, along with several images, including pictures of a severely malnourished soldier and a graphic picture of the leg.
An analysis by The Sunday Times found no evidence the images had been artificially generated or altered. An independent conflict surgeon told the newspaper that the injuries shown were unlikely to have been caused by combat. “It doesn’t look like a blast or fragment injury,” they said. “It looks like it has been cut with a sharp knife.”
In separate audio messages, the same unnamed officer reportedly described the alleged incident to Lieutenant Abdulkhalykovych.
“In short, one ally killed two others and he tried … he cut off a leg and was already trying to eat one of them,” the unnamed officer said in a voice message, explaining that Khromoy was discovered by two comrades sent to investigate his absence.
“In the end, today they went and found the place where he had taken them to the basement, cut off a leg and was already, through a meat grinder or something, sitting there, turning it, trying to eat … He opened fire on them when they came to check on him. They killed him.”
The officer also shared an image of Khromoy – said to be from the 95th Regiment of the 5th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade – appearing deceased and emaciated. “I have no idea where he got that meat grinder. That’s the most interesting part,” he added.
In response, Abdulkhalykovych asked: “Are they not being fed or what? I don’t understand.” The officer replied: “Ours will also soon start eating each other … All the guys are skinny. Everyone is on starvation rations.”
Two other Telegram conversations also appeared to describe separate alleged cases of cannibalism, according to the report. In one, dated to April 3 last year, a soldier – who belonged to the 54th Motorised Rifle Regiment and had the call sign “Most” – complained about having to share a dugout near Bakhmut, in Donetsk, with a comrade he claimed had eaten “a corpse, human meat”.
In another, on October 8 last year, the unit commander of the 1437th Motorised Rifle Regiment rebuked one of his subordinates for cannibalism while stationed in Udachne, near Pokrovsk.
“If you had said something, I would have given you a direction on where to go, where to get meat,” he said, before adding: “Why the f*** are you eating Khokhols [a derogatory term for Ukrainians] … Stop f***ing eating people.”
In a separate message on Telegram, the chief of staff of the 55th Motorised Rifle Brigade reportedly wrote to a subordinate on December 11, instructing troops: “No alcohol! No drugs! No moving around without identity documents! No cannibalism!”
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in London said it believed there was “no reason to comment” on the allegations. A spokesman told the newspaper: “What you have described are fabrications supplied by Ukrainian military intelligence — an outfit whose function is the production of propaganda, not the gathering of facts.”
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 24, 2022, Russian forces have suffered an estimated 1.2 million casualties – including those killed, wounded or missing – according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which reports that up to 325,000 Russians have been killed.
The BBC has confirmed the names of more than 180,000 people killed while fighting for Russia, but says the actual death toll is likely to be much higher because many deaths on the battlefield go unrecorded.
At least 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, the true figure is likely to be much higher, with the BBC estimating that as many as 200,000 Ukrainians have been killed.
