In a 45-second call from a Russian fighter to his family, intercepted by the SBU security service, he said they had killed a sheepdog because they “wanted some meat”. It follows footage posted on social media earlier in the month which appeared to show stray dogs feeding on a dead Russian soldier.
As the invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth week, reports have emerged of demoralised Russian soldiers growing ever more desperate.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion has not gone as he originally planned, as intelligence chiefs believe the Russian President expected a swift takeover of the Donbas followed by victorious retreat.
Reports of disorganisation and miscommunication within the Russian military suggest the Russian advance has been splintered.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency previously disclosed an intercepted call between Russian FSB agents, which revealed information on a standard line as the invading troops had knocked out the communications systems needed for secure conversations.
READ MORE: Dogs eating dead soldier’s bodies as horror of Putin’s war laid bare
Reports have emerged of Russian soldiers begging locals for food due to a lack of supply, and many soldiers have surrendered.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the SBU published a call between a Russian soldier and his family which it said revealed the invading force’s “atrocities and a real moral portrait”.
It added that the “occupiers are degrading [themselves] with each passing day of the war”, and accused soldiers of “raping minors and eating dogs”.
According to one translation of the call, in it the soldier was asked: “Are you eating ok at least?”
Not only are the Russian invaders so turned off by their own supplies, they are now eating dogs and have also been accused of looting supermarkets.
And, earlier in March, a dairy farmer in Kherson said Russian soldiers had taken some cars and food off him, stating they were “nationalising” the items.
Other footage posted on social media – particularly by the Ukrainian armed forces – show often exhausted and scared young soldiers taken in as prisoners of war.
In one video, a Russian soldier who surrendered to locals can be seen being given food and tea, before video calling his mother and breaking down in tears.
General Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the British Army, told the BBC: “These young men are absolutely confused; many of them are very young, frightened, exhausted from weeks of exercising.
“These young men, not only frightened, are now hungry, the fuel for their tanks is not available, so they’ve been placed in a terrible situation.”
Yesterday, former British soldiers fighting alongside Ukrainian armed forces in Irpin, near Kyiv, confirmed they had seen abandoned dogs feeding on uncollected Russian corpses.
One of the soldiers commented that the battlefield experience had been “much worse than anything we experienced in Afghanistan”.
They also said they found a Russian soldier wandering around without his weapon – in a further sign of a breakdown in discipline among the Russian ranks.