the appeal said the 155th reconnaissance team needed it. and the name on the appeal matches a name we found in the leaked list of soldiers. a soldier from the 155th brigade with ten years of experience. 0n kozhemya ko s telegram channel, we found more than ten messages from families complaining about equipment or appealing for it. this is quite unusual. it s not common to see the families of the soldiers appealing some equipment from the company. this is. ..i don t want to say embarrassing, but it is, for any commander. on december 1ath, five weeks after the black berets appealed to their governor, the military prosecutor published the conclusion of their investigation.
the letter went viral. four days later, the russian ministry of defence issued a rare public denial. governor kozhemyako, the man the soldiers had pinned their hopes on, also responded to the appeal. he added that he shared the letter with the military prosecutor s office, but he also denied the number of losses. our investigation has uncovered evidence that supports the black berets account. russian authorities haven t
was not that simple. he told his mother that he had friends in ukraine and that the worst outcome would not be to die. ..but to shoot at people who are like him. in late september, ramaz left his home. together with other men, he travelled more than 2,000 kilometres to a military base in the region of primorye. there, he joined an elite unit. the black berets from the 155th marine brigade. ukrainian authorities accused some of these men of war crimes in bucha at the start of the war. this brigade is championed by primorye s governor, 0leg kozhemyako. governors like him facilitated the mobilisation across russia.
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 letter, are clear examples. shot from a ukrainian reconnaissance drone, they show russian attacks along the same road. ..entering pavlivka
ramaz, the young rapper from yagodnoye, stopped sending news after the assault. his mother became worried and started looking for him. 0n governor kozhemyako s telegram channel, other families complained directly to him. and on november 3rd, he received a message like no other. a letter addressed to him. ..and written by the black berets themselves. the soldiers denounced being thrown into an incomprehensible offensive. they claimed that 300 men were killed, wounded or went missing in four days. and they also wrote that their inept commanders called them meat . at the end, the black berets asked for an independent investigation.