The Ukrainian front in the Russian province of Kursk is at risk of collapsing after days of intensive Russian assaults were aided by a Russian surprise attack through a gas pipeline.
Seven months after Ukrainian forces seized roughly 386 square miles of Russian territory, hoping to use it as a bargaining chip for future negotiations, Ukraine is now at risk of losing its bargaining chip entirely. A week of intense Russian assaults all along the line was capped off with a daring assault through a 56-inch diameter gas pipeline by Russian forces, traveling nearly nine miles before emerging behind Ukrainian lines.
The soldiers used the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline, formerly one of Russia’s main natural gas pipelines into Europe that fell into disuse after Ukraine didn’t renew its contract in 2024.
According to Russian military bloggers, units from the Veterans Brigade, “Akhmat” group, 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment, 11th Airborne Brigade, and Vostok Brigade all participated in the operation.
Videos purporting to be from the operation showed the soldiers crawling through the small pipeline, with one video wishing Russian women a happy International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8.
The Diary of the Fighter Guards Telegram account, with sources in the Russian military, said the units had “completed their mission and are continuing their offensive. Everything else is rumor.”
Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the assault on Saturday, saying that Russian “sabotage and assault groups” had used the pipeline to gain a foothold behind Ukrainian lines. It said that the assault group was “detected in a timely manner” and engaged with rockets and artillery.
“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” it said in a statement.
Russian and Ukrainian sources offered contradictory reports of the operation, with Russian sources saying it had been successful and Ukrainian sources claiming it had been unsuccessful. Confirmable details suggest a middle ground, with the assault troops taking casualties but surprising and hitting Ukrainian defensive positions from the rear.
Russia had previously successfully utilized an abandoned service water pipe to carry out a surprise attack during the battle of Avdiivka last year.
The pipeline attack was only one part of a much larger offensive, which made liberal use of glide bombs, first-person view drones, artillery, and missiles.
The situation in Kursk became critical for the Ukrainians over the past week, when Russian assaults near the border brought Ukraine’s supply lines under the fire control of the Russian military. Videos showed massive columns of Ukrainian vehicles along key supply arteries destroyed or disabled.
One video showed a glide bomb, a Fab-3000, destroying a vital bridge connecting much of the salient to Ukrainian supply lines. A traffic jam of destroyed vehicles formed behind the river, with some troops opting to cross without their vehicles.
An influx of videos showing Ukrainian prisoners of war being taken has proliferated over the past several days. Others showed Ukrainian troops retreating from their positions.
UKRAINE STRUGGLING TO HOLD RUSSIAN LAND THAT COULD BECOME BARGAINING CHIP IN PEACE TALKS
Russia is now closing in on the anchor of Ukraine’s positions in Kursk, the city of Suzhda, from all directions.
Ukraine undertook a major gambit in August when it launched the first invasion of Russia since World War II, a blitz attack against Kursk, of World War II fame. Since then, assaults from Russian forces have slowly chipped away at the salient, leaving Ukraine with less than one-quarter of the territory it held in August. The intensity of current Russian assaults and the ravaging of Ukrainian supply lines is quickly making Ukraine’s position in the province untenable.
