The infiltration of a Russian assault unit into Sudzha through an empty gas pipeline last weekend led to the capture of the town and the rapid retreat of Ukrainian troops, according to Ukrainian and Russian media.
Preparations to deploy Russian troops to the rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) via the empty Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod gas pipeline had been underway for more than three weeks. About 1,000 soldiers reportedly took part in the Operation Pipeline, also known as Operation Stream. Later, Russian media published footage of the first group of the Russian military coming out of the gas pipeline.
That’s it. The assault has begun. Let’s go. The guys are catching up, stretching out… Crouch down! […] That’s what we’re doing.
To protect themselves from possible AFU shelling, the Russian military dug kilometres of trenches at the entry point to the pipe. The troops also stopped the flow of gas, siphoned it out of the steel artery and then pumped oxygen into it so that members of the operation could enter the pipe.
“Sending fighters into the pipe was conducted in small groups over four days. […] In total, they covered more than 15 kilometres along the pipe,” noted the commander of one of the assault squads.
The main challenge of the operation, the organisers said, was the logistics, which was carried out “in a confined space with residual gas, without sufficient oxygen.” The assault team also had to move on half-bent legs, as the diameter of the steel artery was only 1.4 metres.
Some assault troops got methane poisoning during the operation and needed oxygen tanks, with several having to be hospitalised to treat their intoxication. However, the operation succeeded, with the breakthrough to the AFU rear causing confusion and the collapse of the town’s defences.
Interesting details
The remnants of Ukrainian troops are retreating from Sudzha to make their way into Ukrainian territory along a road that is under heavy fire of the Russian artillery. Meanwhile, the AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi described the retreat as “timely measures to manoeuvre Ukrainian units to advantageous defensive lines.”
Ukrainian media published a video of the AFU withdrawal from Sudzha on the road through the village of Gogolevka.
Meanwhile, the commander of the Ukrainian group North, General Dmytro Krasylnykov, said that Syrskyi had removed him from his post on 7 March, just prior to Operation Pipeline, after which the AFU defence in the area collapsed.
The Russian Defence Ministry keeps reporting that settlements in the Kursk region have been returned to Russian control. The Russian military also publishes footage of Russian flags in the centre of Sudzha.
This is the central administration of Sudzha. Zoom in on the flags. Today, 12 March, the flags of the Russian Federation and the units and troops that took part in this operation were hoisted over the Sudzha town administration.
Russian troops had already undertaken a similar operation in Avdiivka in 2022, when soldiers entered a non-functioning sewer in the area of an abandoned tourist resort. The military cut ventilation holes in the steel artery in advance, designed exit points to the surface and attacked. As a result, the Ukrainian soldiers were encircled.
The breakthrough in the rear of Sudzha significantly accelerated the retaliatory offensive of Russian troops in the Kursk region. The withdrawal of the AFU towards Ukrainian territories jeopardises President Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts to exchange the land taken during the Kursk incursion for Russian-controlled Ukrainian land.
