Russia is using devastating 'meat assault' attacks to find out where Ukraine's firepower is hidden: report

• Russia is using waves of troops in head-on "meat assault" attacks, the BBC said.
• Russia's using them to identify Ukrainian firepower positions, an officer told the outlet.

Russia is using head-on attacks by waves of troops to identify Ukrainian firepower positions, a Ukrainian officer told BBC News.

In a report on Russia's brutal front-line tactics near Kharkiv in Ukraine, troops described the waves of Russian attacks on their positions, describing them as "meat assaults."

"The Russians use these units in most cases purely to see where our firing equipment is located, and to constantly exhaust our units," Lt Col Anton Bayev of the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard told the BBC.

"Our guys stand in positions and fight, and when four or five waves of the enemy come at you in a day, which you have to destroy without end, it is very difficult - not only physically, but also psychologically."

Russia has suffered huge casualties in its invasion of Ukraine and reportedly began using "meat assault" tactics in its attacks on the cities of Bakhmut last year.

As a much bigger country, Russia has a manpower advantage over Ukraine, and analysts say it uses the attacks in a bid to overwhelm Ukrainian positions.

However, the tactics recently appear to have won Russia only incremental successes.

Even members of the ultra-nationalist Russian milblogger community, who've supported the invasion, have been critical of the indifference to the lives of troops shown by Russian commanders.

The Russians leave their dead and wounded on the battlefield, Lt Col Bayev told the BBC. "Their main task is simply meat assaults and our total exhaustion," he said.

UK military intelligence said that Russian injuries and deaths had spiked to their highest point in the war in May, with Russia losing around 1,200 troops a day.

The increase came as Russia intensified its attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city, to take advantage of delays in Western aid getting to Ukraine's front lines.

Despite suffering large casualties, Russia has been able to replenish troop numbers by offering relatively lucrative military contracts, drafting prisoners, and using foreign mercenaries.