[hagbard_c]

Because the BBC has been shown to be heavily biased towards the 'metropolitan' and 'liberal' sides - where London goes, so does the BBC. Trusting the BBC on its word is just as unwise as trusting e.g. NPR/PBS or CNN/MSNBC/FOX (USA), ARD/ZDF/NDR (Germany), NOS (Netherlands) or SVT/SR (Sweden). In short, trusting any of the media - whether legacy or new - on their word is unwise, verification is needed. Unfortunately it is getting harder to trust verification videos as well since the advent of generative AV-models.

If this is commonplace as the BBC claims it should be possible for other outlets to find more soldiers - in Ukraine or in Russia - who are willing to share these stories. If only Russia had independent media - https://novayagazeta.ru/ claims to be independent, maybe it is and maybe it is not but I find it hard to believe that an organisation which is housed at 101000, Moscow, Potapovsky lane, 3, building 1 (address taken from the footer of their page) can remain independent for long - it would be something for Russian media to pick up.