Russian troops are forced to eat dogs due to food shortages, Ukraine’s security service has claimed.
The SBU, kyiv’s security and intelligence agency, published an exchange of text messages purportedly between two Russian soldiers, in which a military man stationed in the occupied part of the Kherson region near Crimea told his friend that he and other troops had eaten a Yorkshire. “Everything is bullshit. [The Ukrainians] are beating us like children. We eat dogs, there is no food. Today we ate a Yorkie. A Yorkshire terrier,” said the soldier, according to information from the SBU.
The soldier also sent a text message saying the Russian military had no logistics and “simply can’t deliver” the rations, according to the security service.
The SBU added in a statement: “This contrasts sharply with the ‘victorious’ picture broadcast on Russian television. Faced with the surprised comment of his friend who claims that the media says that ‘they only get victories’, he replies: ‘Let them come here’ ».
In late March, the SBU made a similar allegation, claiming it had tapped into a phone call in which Russian soldiers were discussing eating dog meat instead of their ration packs. The troops were “fed up” with the rations they had been given. When a soldier was asked by his family about whether he ate well, he replied: “It’s not bad. Yesterday we ate alabai [a breed of shepherd dog found in Central Asia]. We wanted some meat.”
There have been multiple reports of food shortages and low morale among Russian soldiers since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. In March, just a few weeks after the conflict, the magazine ‘New Lines’ reported that Russian troops positioned on the outskirts of kyiv were begging the local population for food.
“The villagers say they are begging for food. They are so hungry that they approach the villagers and ask for something to eat. The villagers say that they are not aggressive. Their commanders want them to fight, to be tough. But they are too busy asking for leftovers to eat,” a resident of Brovary, an eastern suburb of kyiv, told the news outlet.
