British media outlet The Sunday Times recently cited Ukrainian intelligence reports, stating that Russian troops on the eastern front in Ukraine, during the winters of 2025 to 2026, are suspected of at least five incidents of cannibalism due to supply cutoffs, food shortages, and extreme combat conditions.
However, most of the information comes from intercepted communications and photographic evidence, and it is currently impossible to independently verify. The Russian side has denied the reports, calling them part of Ukraine's propaganda war.
The report points out that Ukrainian cybersecurity and intelligence experts claim to have obtained at least five individual cases of Russian soldiers consuming the bodies of their comrades through intercepted high-ranking Russian officers’ conversations on Telegram and frontline photographic evidence. These incidents are said to have occurred mostly during the depths of winter, when frontline supply lines were heavily damaged and many units fell into hunger and starvation.
One such case took place in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine, near Myrnohrad. A Russian soldier codenamed “Khromoy” reportedly killed two of his comrades, cut off the leg of one of them, and attempted to eat the corpse. According to the intercepted conversation in which an unnamed Russian officer was reporting to his superiors, he described the soldier as having “already cut off the leg, and started to try to eat the person.”
The same officer also sent related photos to his commander and openly admitted that the unit was seriously low on food: “Our people will soon start to eat each other. Everyone is so skinny, just skin and bones, and we’re all barely surviving on rations.”
According to the Ukrainian side, artificial intelligence recognition tools have been used to analyze the relevant photos and determined that the images were neither AI-generated nor digitally altered; independent battlefield surgeons have also been commissioned to examine the wounds, concluding that the injuries looked more like they were caused by sharp instruments rather than explosions or shrapnel. However, this evidence has yet to be verified by authoritative third-party organizations.
In addition to the aforementioned cases, Ukraine claims to have intercepted other conversations, including soldiers complaining about sharing a bunker with a comrade who had “previously eaten a corpse”; another case involved a unit commander ordering troops to stop eating the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and affirming that food supplies would be provided if requested; in another instance, a staff officer from a motorized infantry brigade allegedly issued an explicit order for the unit to “ban cannibalism,” listing it alongside drinking alcohol, drug use, and operating without identification as violations. (News source: Newtalk)