Bloggers claim that Russian special forces attacked Ukrainian forces at Kursk via a gas pipeline
Pro-Russian bloggers claimed that Russian special forces snuck miles through a large gas pipeline near Sudzha to try to surprise Ukrainian troops as part of a massive offensive to eject Ukrainian soldier from the western Russian region Kursk.
In August of last year, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers took over about 1,300 sq km of Russia's Kursk Region in an effort to gain bargaining power in future negotiations as well as to force Russia to withdraw its military forces from eastern Ukraine.
In its daily report on the situation at Kursk, the Russian Defence Ministry stated that its forces had retaken Lebedevka and also seized Novenke, an hamlet in Ukraine's neighboring Sumy Region, across the border.
Yuri Podolyaka is a pro-Russian blogger who was born in Ukraine. He said that Russian special forces walked for miles inside the main gas pipeline, and that some of them spent days there before shocking Ukrainian forces near Sudzha from behind.
Sudzha hosts major gas measurement and transfer stations along a pipeline which used to transport Russian natural gas to the Ukrainian gas transmission network for further transportation to Europe.
Two Majors, a pro-Russian blogger and war reporter, said that a major battle for Sudzha was underway. He also claimed that Russian forces surprised Ukrainian soldiers when they entered the area through a major pipeline.
Russian Telegram channels displayed pictures of special forces wearing gas masks with lights and some using colorful Russian curses along the inside what appeared to be a large pipe.
According to a statement by the Ukrainian general staff, Russian soldiers used the gas pipe in an effort to gain a foothold. However, airborne assault forces detected them immediately and responded with drone, rocket and artillery attacks which destroyed the Russian units.
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Due to restrictions on battlefield reporting by both sides, I was not able to verify the reported information.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has led to the largest confrontation between Russia and the West since 1962's Cuban Missile Crisis. Both the Kremlin as well as the White House have warned that missteps may trigger World War Three.
The fear among European leaders is that Ukraine may lose the war in 2024, and that Donald Trump has turned his back on Europe.
After a heated meeting between Trump, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the media at the White House in February 28, the United States suspended military aid to Ukraine and intelligence sharing.
The Ukraine's incursion in Kursk last august was the most serious assault on Russian territory since 1941, when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union.
Russian forces have been pushing Ukrainian forces across the Kursk Front in recent weeks and month, putting tens or thousands of Ukrainian soldiers at risk of being trapped.
"Fighting continued all night long in Sudzha," Podolyaka said, adding that a part of the town is under Russian control.
Another blogger, Yuri Kotenok said that Ukrainian troops have moved equipment closer to the border, away from Sudzha.
Our units are currently attacking the north-eastern area of Sudzha, and fighting around the? Kotenok stated that the Lomonosov Street, and Sudzha's industrial zone were under attack.
The Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline used to bring gas from western Siberia via Sudzha to Ukraine but on January 1 Ukraine terminated all Russian gas transit through its territory. Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by David Goodman
(source: Reuters)
