Russian special forces have hiked through nine miles of gas pipeline to ambush Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region — as Moscow claims it retook three new settlements from Kyiv on Sunday.
The Kremlin fighters allegedly spent days hiding out inside a gas pipeline connecting Russia to Europe before emerging late Saturday to attack Ukrainian soldiers stationed near the border city of Sudzha, according to Russian bloggers on Telegram.
The attack by Russian “sabotage and assault groups” was confirmed by Ukrainian General Command, who also said the Kremlin troops failed to gain a foothold inside the city.
“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed,” the agency said in a statement. “The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high.”
Sudzha, which had about 5,000 residents before the war began, remains one of the key cities Ukraine managed to take during its surprise counter-invasion last year in Kursk, with the conquered cities now standing as a major bargaining chip against the Russian invaders.
Since the Kursk operation, Russia has sent tens of thousands of soldiers — including more than 11,000 North Koreans — to try and reclaim the territory.
The gas pipeline attack appeared to be the latest aimed at taking Sudzha, which one Russian blogger decried as a complete failure because Moscow failed to give the troops the supplies needed to beat the Ukrainians.
“Food, water, ammunition, communications, charging electrical devices, power banks, the approach of the main forces, evacuating the wounded … Two or three groups in the rear without all this — that’s a disaster,” the blogger wrote.
Russian bloggers, who often have military ties, have become one of the primary sources of information for the fighting in the frontlines as independent news outlets are not entrenched in the combat zones.
Despite the failure to retake Sudzha, the Kremlin claimed it took back three settlements near the city as of Sunday, with Russia eager to regain its territory ahead of any cease-fire talks over the war.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said its forces have taken control of Malaya Loknya, Cherkasskoe Porechnoe, and Kositsa, all of which lie just north of Sudzha.
“The Russian Federation’s armed forces are continuing to rout groups of the Ukrainian army on the territory of the Kursk region,” the ministry said in a statement.
While Moscow has stayed silent over the Sudzha attack, Maj. Gen. Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces, shared reports of it and the other attacks in Kursk on Telegram as he touted the Kremlin.
“I am surprised by people who really think that Russia could lose,” Alaudinov said. “It is a good day.”
The future of the war has grown increasingly unclear, with President Trump suggesting that Ukraine might not even be able to survive against Russia even if the US forged ahead with full-blown support.
The president’s comments come as Kyiv hopes to salvage its relationship with the US following Trump’s explosive meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The US has since paused its military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine, much to the shock of its NATO allies who slammed the move as siding with Moscow’s invading force.
With Post wires