Mobik Meat Cube

About

The Mobik Meat Cube or Russian Meat Cube, also known as Cubenik is a conspiracy theory surrounding a series of photographs purportedly showing a compressed pile of dead human remains of people killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The images, allegedly taken from a street in the Grafovka, Schebekinskiy district of Belgorod oblast, Russia, first surfaced on Telegram in early July 2023 and spread across sites including 4chan and Twitter as users attempted to discover whether or not the meat cube is really made of human remains, also inspiring memes. The cube was reported by Russian news sources to be discarded, spoiled liver and intestines originally meant to be used as dog food, with the Angel Animal Shelter reportedly confirming this.

Origin

On July 4th, 2023, a Telegram^[1] user posted an image to the "Huyovy Kharkiv Huey Kharkiv" page showing several photographs, purportedly taken the day prior, of a pile of what appears to be organs compressed into a cube using saran wrap placed on top of a pallet. The post gained over 143,000 views in a day. The caption that accompanies the photographs reads what translates to:

Some news from Shchemyakino in the BNR. I wonder what or who can be pressed there?🤔

"Please help, they will affect the situation in the Shebekinsky district. Grafovka village, Verkhnyaya Street, 5. On 03.07.23, remains of unknown origin were brought and left right on the roadway and near the yard. The remains are in large quantities. They have a disgusting appearance and are even more disgusting the smell. I am attaching photos. All this slurry is flowing down the street. Yesterday they called all the services everywhere. They wrote letters. But they answered within a month. Here are such ecological problems. I am thinking of starting a bonfire. I think everything will come at once. The residents of the street are contacting."

A second post sharing additional photos of the meat cube was then posted to the "Whisper Shebekino👀" Telegram^[2] channel that day (images shown below, compiled, censored). The caption reads:

Please help influence the situation in the Shebekinsky district with. Grafovka, Verkhnyaya St., 5 On
07/03/23, remains of unknown origin were brought and left right on the roadway and near the yard. The rest are in abundance. They look disgusting and smell even more disgusting. Photos are attached. All this slurry flows down the street. Yesterday they called all the services sent everywhere. They wrote letters. But the answer is within a month. These are the environmental issues. I'm thinking about building a fire. I think everyone will come. Residents of the street are turning.

Spread / Investigation

On July 4th, 2023, an anonymous user of 4chan's /k/^[3] board posted a comment (shown below, left) about the meat cube, suggesting there was an earlier thread posted to 4chan claiming the cube was comprised of dead Ukrainians, writing:

They tried to pretend it was Ukrainians at first until we tracked down the Telegram post and found out that it was actually in Belgorod. They then tried to back peddle and claim that the eldritch amalgamation of mystery meat, distorted faces and torn bodybags was just off-cuts of meat that were dumped on the side of the road. Two large crates of perfectly find cuts of meat that could have been sold off for pet food or ground up into cheap mince that were just abandoned in some random corner of a poverty stricken Russian border town.

Another anon posted an image to the thread^[4] of the street the meat cube was purportedly found on, showing evidence of a nearby meat processing plant and suggesting the cube is just discarded, unwanted meat from the plant (shown below right). 4chan users continued to investigate the image, attempting to point out what some believed are human remains in the cube.^[5]

In another thread on the /k/^[6] board, an anon suggests that the meat is dog food meant for a nearby veterinary clinic that went bad and was dumped (shown below, left). Some then doubted this, claiming there are no kennels or veterinary clinics within 20 kilometers of the dumping site, including Twitter^[7] user @ShitlordP.

On July 5th, 2023, a screenshot of a translated post from Telegram^[16] was posted to a thread on /pol/^[8] also claiming it is discarded frozen liver and intestines donated as humanitarian aid for dog food (shown below, right). The claim comes from Russian news site Go31.ru^[15] who contacted the owner of an animal shelter, who confirmed that the meat cube was meant to be dog food but they had to abandon it after nobody would help them properly dispose of it.

Continued Spread / Memes

After the images surfaced, the story of the Mobik Meat Cube spread across social media, inspiring memes and reactions in early July 2023. On July 4th, the meat cube images were also shared to 9GAG,^[9] garnering over 370 upvotes in a day. The meat cube was then shared to the /r/4chan^[10] and /r/NonCredibleDefense^[11] subreddits that same day, garnering over 800 upvotes and 3,900 upvotes, respectively, in less than a day. It was also posted to /r/eyeblech,^[14] accumulating over 2,600 upvotes in a similar timeframe.

Also on July 4th, 2023, a Redditor shared a Condescending Wonka meme to /r/NonCredibleDefense^[12] suggesting the meat cube is fake, garnering over 680 upvotes in a day (shown below, left). Later that day, another meme about the cube was posted to /r/NonCredibleDefense,^[13] garnering over 200 upvotes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References