Using only publicly available footage and testimonies, "They Call Us Meat" made by the BBC World Service’s investigation unit, BBC Eye, shows evidence that during the October and November 2022 assault on the strategic Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, glaring tactical mistakes caused one of the highest concentration of losses for a single Russian military unit since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In "They Call Us Meat", BBC Eye pieces together online testimonies, death records and battle footage to investigate the fate of the fighters from Russia’s elite (also known as “Black Berets”) 155th Marine Brigade, who, in October 2022, were sent to take Vuhledar. Using videos and social-media posts, BBC Eye follows Ramaz, a 25-year-old TikTok aspiring rapper, who was conscripted into the elite unit.

Before the assault on Vuhledar, Ramaz sent a last message to his mother, and then went missing. Days later, a rare protest letter from the "Black Berets”, addressed to their regional Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, emerged online. The men claimed that their “inept” commanders threw them into an “incomprehensible offensive” which resulted in 300 casualties in just four days. They said their commanders “planned to capture the town by rushing through woodlands where the enemy was waiting for them”. They also wrote that their commanders called them “meat”.

The Russian Ministry of Defence and Governor Kozhemyako denied the losses. But BBC Eye’s painstaking investigation corroborates claims by “Black Berets” that their heavy losses were caused by glaring tactical mistakes. Working with experts, BBC Eye has come to the conclusion that this has been one of the highest known concentration of losses for a single Russian military unit since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Despite the soldiers’ warnings and the ensuing losses, Russia tried to take Vuhledar again in January 2023, launching the largest assault on the town since the beginning of the war. Again, the “Black Berets” were involved. The soldiers sent a second protest letter, saying they lost “almost the entire personnel […] of the battalion” and warning of a repeat of the first assault. This time, neither the Russian Ministry of Defence nor Governor Kozhemyako responded.

"They Call Us Meat" also tells the story of Ramaz’s mother, based on her social-media posts, and the search for her son. Following in his footsteps, she says online that her family travelled nearly 7,000 km to the town of Volnovakha where her son was last seen before the assault on Vuhledar in October. Her journey highlights the discord between official narratives and the realities of the war.

From the opposite side, there is the story of Marina, a Vuhledar resident who had to flee her hometown in the wake of the invasion. A Russian-speaking Ukrainian, she is the kind of person President Vladimir Putin vowed to liberate.

Marina recognises her Vuhledar house in online videos posted by the soldiers from Ramaz’s unit fighting there. She says: “We didn’t need to be liberated… We were ‘liberated’ from our homes, from our families, from our jobs.” When asked if she has any sympathy for men like Ramaz, she says: “I have more sympathy for the young guys, the ones who were just thrown in there like meat.”

"They Call Us Meat", from the BBC World Service, is available for viewing in the UK – via BBC iPlayer – and internationally, on BBC World Service YouTube channel. The documentary is available in Russian via the BBC News Russian YouTube channel.

BBC World Service’s BBC Eye investigation is by Victoria Arakelyan and Ned Davies

Senior producers: Aliaume Leroy and Bertram Hill

Editor: Marc Perkins

Watch via the link below.