so, what happened in vuhledar? people back home wanted answers. bbc eye looked into the black berets�* claims. it's difficult to interview soldiers or theirfamilies in russia. they face years in jail for discrediting the army. but online, there's a trail of evidence. piecing together online testimonies, death records and battle footage, we found that the 155 did suffer heavy losses in vuhledar. we found reasons why these men died. such kinds of breaching operations are suicide. and we found out what happened to those caught up in the battle. ramaz gorgadze was a stubborn young russian. his mother says he was born this way, an iron character with georgian roots. she says he was impossible to argue with. he grew up like any other young russian, in a small village called yagodnoye, located in russia's far east province. as a young teenager, he developed a passion for rap. rapping in russian he took this passion with him during his one year national service... ..and became popular online for his talent. rapping in russian but in february 2022, vladimir putin, russia's president, launched a full—scale invasion of ukraine. at first, professional soldiers were sent in. but by september, many of them had died. new blood was needed to refill the ranks. on september 21st, putin announced a partial mobilisation, calling up the men who had done their national service. the next day, the young rapper ramaz posted his conscription notice on instagram. before leaving, he wrote a song about the war. but in his 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, 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. 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. 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. for days, the battle raged on. gunfire and by 30 october, the russian ministry of defence announced that their troops had reached the southern outskirts of the village of pavlivka, a town just south of vuhledar. from the command post, this looked like a successful operation. russia was gaining ground in donbas. but on the battlefield, the black berets were not celebrating. they were caught in a deathtrap. testimonies like this one started to emerge online. 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. 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 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. 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 can't always attribute certain people to the unit, and also we only rely on open—source material. so we believe that the real number of total losses on the russian side is probably at least two times higher than the figure we have. so if we put aside the first two weeks of the invasion, which have seen a tremendous rate of losses, then this october and november battle for pavlivka probably can be named as one of the highest concentration of forces for a single unit. 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 from yehorivka. it was widely reported the 155th led the assault on pavlivka in early november, with the support of the 40th marine brigade and localforces. the first video shows two russian bmp—3s attacking pavlivka without any visible support. at the start of the video... ..one bmp—3 is hit. despite this, the two vehicles keep going. they reach the first houses and stop here. the soldiers disembark and take up position. but they don't know that this drone is watching them. later, the camera zooms out... ..and they're struck 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. and hits the tree line. tayfun ozberk was a turkish naval officer for 16 years. he worked alongside russian marines in operation black sea harmony in 200a. we showed him videos of the battle to understand the russian behaviour on the field. you see that location was hit. and for him these images reflect a glaring lack of military tactics. they didn't apply the fundamentals of land warfare in these videos, and they are just sending the troops from a narrow line to their death. there is only one line, so the ukrainian gunnery knows where to shoot. they are easy targets. other parts of the land probably was mined by the ukrainian forces. so after clearing mines you replan your course of action, but this time from multiple lines. multiple lines of attack allow units in the field to take out the enemy's defences. without a mine clearance operation, without a reconnaissance operation, without enough intelligence supported with thermal and other electro—optical imaging, such kinds of breaching operations are suicide. tayfun�*s analysis tells us that the 155 soldiers were not capable of proper reconnaissance. our investigation found one of the reasons why this may have happened. 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. 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. 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. and run to the front line is exactly what ramaz�*s mother did. following the footsteps of her son, she said, online, her family travelled nearly 7,000 kilometres to the town of volnovakha, where her son was last seen before the assault on vuhledar in october. there, she finally found her answer. her son was dead. he had been killed in the battle, a day before his comrades sent their protest letter to governor kozhemya ko. over the next months, ramaz�*s mother grieved her son. she also talked to local media. 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 pavlivka's battle and that they're now threatened with criminal prosecution in cases of disobedience. 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 155's 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. 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. one year later, marina's home in vuhledar — or what's left of it — is still a contested battlefield. having to rely on public online evidence means we may never know the full extent of 155 deaths in vuhledar. but our investigation shows that tactical mistakes and a lack of proper equipment led to one of the highest—known concentration of losses in the war for a single unit. one year later, russia is still sending men to try and take the town. young men like ramaz gorgadze. but this battle is just one story. bakhmut. kupiansk. adiivka. more and more young men are being thrown into russia's meat grinder. hello. we've had some fairly chilly weather over the past few days, but things are about to get colder, as we're going to see a blast of arctic air moving in for the next couple of days. so a drop in temperature and some snow showers which will cause a bit of disruption, particularly in the north. so we've got a couple of weather fronts shifting their way south, opening the doors to these cold northerly winds, bringing us that arctic air. through the next few hours, already some snow showers working in across parts of shetland, mainland north of scotland. also seeing a little bit of snowfall, a few light rain showers, further south. but actually most of us are dry and as the sun rises, i think, first thing, temperatures are going to be just about either side of freezing. so through the day on sunday then we've got the snow showers packing in across the north of scotland. it's also going to be really windy, particularly up towards the northern isles, where gusts could reach 70 miles an hour, so blizzard conditions there. further south, few spots of light rain, perhaps northern ireland, wales, into central southern england. but most places are going to be avoiding these showers and we'll see temperatures between about 3 to 6 degrees, but it'll feel cooler with the wind, especially in the north. now, heading on into monday, snow showers continue to pack in on that northerly breeze. they'll become more frequent across the northern half of scotland, but also for northern ireland, some snow possible here on monday and through some of these irish sea coasts, perhaps. pembrokeshire, one or two snow showers also possible for the likes of the north york moors towards norfolk as well. most of us, though, looking dry with some wintry sunshine. but look at those temperatures, just1 to 5 on the thermometer. but when you add on those brisk northerly winds, it's really going to feel bitterly cold. feeling around about —5, —6 around some of those east coasts, for instance. moving through into tuesday, and nowjust have a look at these showers just moving in for northern ireland, perhaps southern scotland, perhaps one or two into parts of northwest england and wales as well. there is the potential for a little bit more disruptive snow on tuesday, especially moving in towards the central belt, i think, later on in the day. so we're keeping an eye on the snow showers in the north, but further south and east, i think, you're going to be staying dry if cold again. so there's that area of low pressure bringing a bit of snow i think for some of us on tuesday. that clears away. this area of low pressure towards the south is most likely to be staying out across france, but if it does push further north into that colder air. across southern england, it could bring a bit of snow. either way, i think next week we're looking at a colder week, a fair amount of dry weather in the south, some snow showers mainly in the north and sharp overnight frosts. bye— bye. live from washington, this is bbc news. taiwan's president—elect, william lai, vows to stand up to chinese intimidation in his first speech after his election victory. president biden says he has sent a private message to iran about the houthis in yemen following us and uk airstrikes targeting the group. and as the pivotal iowa caucuses approach, a severe winter storm is putting a damper on republican campaigning. hello, i'm helena humphrey. taiwanese voters have chosen william lai as their president in an historic election cementing a path that is increasingly divergent from neighbouring china, who warned voters not to vote for the doctor—turned—politican. mr lai, who represents the democratic progressive party, won 40% of the vote, beating the other two opponents by a wide margin. he has broken new ground, winning an unprecedented third consecutive presidential term for his party. but the win could also increase tensions with china, who have called mr lai a troublemaker and separtist. china considers taiwan a part of its territory and has been calling for a "peaceful reunification" but has not ruled out the use of force. in recent months the country has ramped up its military presence on the island, heightening fears of a possible conflict. rupert wingfield—hayes has more from the taiwanese capital, taipei. 0nto stage comes the man who will now be taiwan's next

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