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Russia seeks to encircle Ukrainian forces

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Ukraine took a sliver of Russia in August 2024

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Ukraine confirms Russia used pipeline to launch attack

(Recasts, adds Ukrainian confirmation and statement)

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, March 9 (Reuters) - Russian special forces crept

miles through a major gas pipeline near the town of Sudzha in an

attempt to surprise Ukrainian forces as part of a major

offensive to eject Ukrainian soldiers from the western Russian

region of Kursk, pro-Russian war bloggers said.

Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers seized about 1,300 square km

of Russia's Kursk region in August last year in what Kyiv said

was an attempt to gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations

and to force Russia to shift military forces from eastern

Ukraine.

In its daily update on the situation in Kursk, Russia's

Defence Ministry said its forces had retaken the village of

Lebedevka, as well as seizing Novenke, a hamlet across the

border in Ukraine's neighbouring Sumy region.

Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military

blogger, said Russian special forces had walked miles along the

inside of the major gas pipeline and some had spent several days

in the pipe before surprising Ukrainian forces from the rear

near Sudzha.

Sudzha is the home of major gas transfer and measuring

stations on a pipeline that used to carry Russian natural gas

into the Ukrainian gas transmission system for onward

transportation to Europe.

Pro-Russian war blogger Two Majors said a major battle was

under way for Sudzha and that Russian forces had surprised

Ukrainian soldiers by entering the area via a major gas

pipeline.

Russian Telegram channels showed pictures of special forces

in gas masks and lights, some using colourful Russian curses,

along the inside of what looked like a large pipe.

A statement from Ukraine's general staff said that Russian

soldiers had used the gas pipeline in an attempt to gain a

foothold, but airborne assault forces promptly detected them and

responded with rocket, artillery and drone attacks that were

destroying the Russian units.

US POLICY UPENDED

Owing to battlefield reporting restrictions on both sides,

Reuters was unable to verify the reports.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to the biggest

confrontation between the West and Russia since the 1962 Cuban

Missile Crisis. Both the Kremlin and White House have said

missteps could trigger World War Three.

Russian forces' advances in 2024 and U.S. President Donald

Trump's upending of U.S. policy on Ukraine and Russia have

caused fears among European leaders that Ukraine will lose the

war and that Trump is turning his back on Europe.

The United States paused military aid and intelligence

sharing with Ukraine this month after a meeting between Trump

and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House

on February 28 descended into acrimony in front of the world's

media.

Ukraine's incursion into Kursk last August was the most

serious attack on Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of

the Soviet Union in 1941.

In recent weeks and months, Russian forces have pushed

Ukrainian forces back across the Kursk front, placing tens of

thousands of Ukrainian troops in danger of being encircled.

"Fighting continued throughout the night in Sudzha," said

Podolyaka, adding that part of the town was under Russian

control.

Another war blogger, Yuri Kotenok, said that Ukrainian

forces have been moving equipment away from Sudzha, closer to

the border.

"At the moment, our units are attacking in the north-eastern

part of Sudzha and fighting in the area of ​​Lomonosov Street

and the industrial zone of Sudzha," Kotenok said.

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.