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 russia s 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 identify deaths in the 155 brigade since the beginning of the war. when we plotted them on a graph. ..two clear spikes emerged in 2022. the first one represents the assault on kyiv at the start of the conflict.
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. we ve 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.
by ukrainian artillery. in the second video, a russian t 80bv tank attempts again, a drone sees it coming. the tank is hit once, but keeps going. ..running into the remains of another russian vehicle. it then stops. ..and the ukrainians take it out. the third video shows another lone russian tank, again rushing through the same road. a missile nearly hits the tank, but it keeps going and drives by the remains of the two vehicles we ve seen before. the tank is then struck.
but in ramaz head, it 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, hejoined 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.