BBC: Russia uses ‘meat assault’ attacks to test Ukraine’s firepower

• According to the BBC, Russia is conducting frontal “flesh attacks” with waves of troops.
• An officer told the news agency that Russia was using them to identify Ukrainian firing positions.
• According to reports, around 1,000 Russian soldiers are killed or injured every day.

Russia is using frontal attacks by waves of troops to identify Ukrainian firing positions, a Ukrainian officer told BBC News.

In a report on Russia’s brutal front-line tactics near Kharkiv, Ukraine, troops described the waves of Russian attacks on their positions as “flesh attacks.”

“The Russians use these units in most cases only to see where our firearms are and to constantly exhaust our units,” Lieutenant Colonel Anton Bayev of the Khartia Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard told the BBC.

“Our guys are in position and fighting, and when you have four or five waves of the enemy coming at you in one day and you have to destroy them endlessly, it is very difficult – not only physically but also psychologically.”

Russia suffered huge losses in its invasion of Ukraine and reportedly began using the “flesh attack” tactic in its attacks on the towns of Bakhmut last year.

Because Russia is much larger, it has a troop advantage over Ukraine. Analysts believe the country is using the attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian positions.

However, this tactic appears to have brought Russia only minor success recently.

Even members of the ultranationalist Russian military blogging community who supported the invasion were critical of Russian commanders’ indifference to soldiers’ lives.

The Russians are leaving their dead and wounded on the battlefield, Lt. Col. Bayev told the BBC. “Their main task is simply flesh attacks and our complete exhaustion,” he said.

British military intelligence reported that the number of Russian casualties and deaths reached its highest level in the war in May. Russia is losing around 1,200 soldiers every day.

This increase came as Russia intensified its attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, to take advantage of delays in delivering Western aid to Ukraine’s front lines.

Despite heavy losses, Russia managed to increase its troop strength by offering relatively lucrative military contracts, conscripting prisoners and employing foreign mercenaries.