Page 107 - 155 News Today

Many russian—speaking ukrainians live in that area. these are the people vladimir putin vowed to liberate. marina and herfamily had their home in vuhledar. on october 28th, ramaz and his comrades from the 155 prepared for the assault. he sent a last message to his mother, svetlana.

But kozhemyako developed a reputation for being an enthusiastic recruiter. at the end of october, ramaz completed his short training and was deployed to eastern ukraine. he arrived in the town of volnovakha, where the 155 was staged. 0n hisjourney, he sent updates to his mother. in volnovakha, the 155 was preparing for an imminent offensive on the strategic town of vuhledar. it sits on an elevated terrain in the donetsk region of donbas.

Why were the 155 losses so high in that time period? the black berets�* letter mentions an incomprehensible offensive. they say their commanders planned to capture the town by rushing through woodlands where the enemy was waiting for them. they also claim the terrain made them easy targets for the ukrainian gunnery. we analysed hundreds of videos from the battles around vuhledar. we found russian troops making the errors described in the letter. these three videos, published days after the 155...

But the highest one is in november 2022, during the offensive on pavlivka and vuhledar. we found that at least 60 black berets were killed or went missing in the months following the start of the assault on october 28th. most happened after their letter was sent to governor kozhemyako. we think that the real number of losses in 155 is definitely higher than the figure we have because we cant always attribute certain people to the unit, and also we only rely on open—source material. so we belie...

They found no wrongdoing by the 155th brigade�*s commanders. by december, ramaz, the young rapper from yagodnoye, was still missing. his mother, svetlana, shared her despair online, and asked for help to find him. back in october, governor kozhemyako had promised to support the families. he wrote this on telegram. but families sent messages on his channel saying they could not get responses.

In the days after the letter, more videos surfaced showing the same tactical mistakes as the footage from october and november. lone russian units attacking in a single line and getting hit repeatedly. 13 days after the 155s second letter, a journalist asked president putin about the fate of the russian marines ukraine. this is his response. and governor kozhemya ko? he never replied to the second letter. we contacted governor kozhemyako for a comment on ourfindings. he did not respond.

In late january 2023, russia tried to take vuhledar again, launching the largest assault on the town since the beginning of the war. again, soldiers of the 155th brigade were involved. again, the men were caught in a deathtrap. again, they raised the alarm. on january 29th, another letter from the black berets appeared on governor kozhemyako�*s telegram group. the soldiers said they lost almost the entire personnel of the battalion. they warned of a repetition of pavlivkas battle and that they...

President putin and governor kozhemyako have justified the war as a liberation of the russian—speaking people in eastern ukraine. marina, the resident from vuhledar, sees it differently. marina left her home in vuhledar at the start of the war. she watched the battle unfold on social media. 0n telegram, she saw this video of 155 soldiers fighting in her house.

Released official data about casualties since september 2022. but bbc russias 0lga ivshina has the most accurate count available. since the first day of war, bbc russia has been working together with independent website mediazona and a team of volunteers to find out and confirm the number of russian servicemen killed in ukraine. we have been using open—source material, official statements, social media posts, media reports and pictures from cemeteries within russia. we worked with this team to...

They were missing critical equipment. 0n 0ctober11th, weeks before the assault on vuhledar, governor kozhemyako said he would deliver reconnaissance devices to the 155. but on the ground the soldiers said they lacked equipment. weve talked to a russian source with friends in the 155. the black berets turned to their families for help. on october 30th a group of mothers and wives of primorye soldiers sent a message on telegram collecting money to buy a thermal imager and components.