Russian Forces Walk Inside Gas Pipeline to Out-Flank Ukrainian Troops

Russian special forces crawled through gas pipelines to conduct a surprise attack in Ukrainian-held Kursk, according to pro-Russian military bloggers. Both Kyiv and Moscow claim successful operations.

Ukraine’s armed forces shared footage late on Saturday that it said showed its soldiers attacking elite Russian forces “moving along a gas pipeline branch in an atttempt to gain a foothold” near Sudzha, about 6 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Moscow had said on Saturday that its troops had seized three settlements in Kursk, quickly followed on Sunday by a statement adding the Kursk village of Lebedevka, northwest of Sudzha.

Russia’s influential community of military bloggers separately reported a Russian offensive in Kursk over the weekend.

One account reported Russian troops had often crawled through kilometers of pipeline tunnels, often sitting and “waiting for the command to storm for several more days.” Images shared by pro-Kremlin channels purport to show the Russian soldiers inside the pipelines. Newsweek could not independently verify these photographs.

Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Kursk, which borders Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, in August last year had given President Volodymyr Zelensky a potential bargaining chip in the U.S.-brokered peace negotiations now underway. Russia’s inability to fully dislodge Ukraine, including with the help of thousands of North Korean troops, has likely been a sore spot for the Kremlin.

This is a breaking story and will be updated shortly.