LONDON, MARCH 9
Russian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region, Ukraine's military and Russian war bloggers reported, as Moscow moves to recapture parts of its border province that Kyiv seized in a shock offensive.
Ukraine launched in August a daring cross-border incursion into Kursk, in what marked the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II. Within days, Ukrainian units had captured 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory, including the strategic border town of Sudzha, and taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war. According to Kyiv, the operation aimed to gain a bargaining chip in future peace talks, and force Russia to divert troops away from its grinding offensive in eastern Ukraine.
But months after Ukraine's thunder run, its soldiers in Kursk are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 troops, including some from Russia's ally North Korea. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers run the risk of being encircled, open source maps of the battlefield show.
According to Telegram posts by a Ukrainian-born, pro-Kremlin blogger, Russian operatives walked about 15 kilometers (9 miles) inside the pipeline, which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe. Some Russian troops had spent several days in the pipe before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near the town of Sudzha, blogger Yuri Podolyaka claimed.
The town had some 5,000 residents before the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and houses major gas transfer and measuring stations along the pipeline, once a major outlet for Russian natural gas exports through Ukrainian territory.
Another war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said fierce fighting was underway for Sudzha, and that Russian forces managed to enter the town through a gas pipeline. Russian Telegram channels showed photos of what they said were special forces operatives, wearing gas masks and moving along what looked like the inside of a large pipe.
Ukraine's General Staff confirmed on Saturday evening that Russian "sabotage and assault groups" used the pipeline in a bid to gain a foothold outside Sudzha. In a Telegram post, it said Russian troops were "detected in a timely manner" and that Ukraine responded with rockets and artillery.
"At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy's losses in Sudzha are very high," the General Staff reported.
The Associated Press could not independently verify these accounts. The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday reported that its troops have taken the village of Lebedevka, some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) northwest of Sudzha, and inflicted defeats on multiple Ukrainian units in and near the town. It did not specify when exactly these clashes took place. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the Russian ministry's claims.
France announces new aid package for Ukraine
Meanwhile, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Sunday that France will use profits from frozen Russian assets to finance an additional 195 million euros package ($211 million) in arms for Ukraine, the latest in a series of military aid deliveries funded through the mechanism.
In an interview with the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper, Lecornu said that Paris will send new 155 mm artillery shells and glide bombs for Mirage 2000 fighter jets it previously gave to Ukraine.
The move prompted an angry response from the speaker of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin. A statement by the State Duma's press service Sunday cited Volodin as saying that Paris "will answer for its actions" and eventually have to return what Volodin called "stolen" funds.
Ukrainian drones said to target Russian oil infrastructure
Elsewhere, Russian officials and Telegram channels reported that Ukrainian drones targeted oil infrastructure in south and central Russia overnight into early Sunday. One drone struck an oil depot in Cheboksary, a Russian city on the Volga River about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the border, the local governor reported. According to Oleg Nikolaev, nobody was hurt but the depot needed reconstruction work.
Footage circulated on Russian Telegram channels at what appeared to be a fire at or near one of Russia's largest oil refineries, in the southern city of Ryazan. Shot, a news channel on Telegram, cited local residents as saying they heard several nighttime blasts near the refinery. Local Gov. Pavel Malkov said Ukrainian drones had been shot down nearby. He claimed there had been no casualties or damage.
Ukraine did not immediately comment on either incident.