Moscow’s attack comes as it intensifies efforts to recapture parts of its border province that Ukraine seized in a shock offensive.
According to Telegram posts by a Ukrainian-born, pro-Kremlin blogger, Russian operatives walked about 15 kilometres (9 miles) inside the pipeline, which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe, AP reported.
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Another war blogger, who uses the alias ‘Two Majors’, said fierce fighting took place in Sudzha, and that Russian forces managed to enter the town using a gas pipeline.
Several Russian Telegram channels showed photos of special forces soldiers wearing gas masks and moving along what looked like the inside of a large pipe.
The development was later confirmed by Ukraine’s General Staff on Saturday who said that the Russian “sabotage and assault groups” used the pipeline for the strike.
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“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the General Staff reported.
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.
How did Ukraine capture Sudzha?
Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk in August last year, in what marks the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II.
Within days, Ukrainian units had captured 1,000 square kilometres (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.
Sudzha had some 5,000 residents before the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is house to some major gas transfer and measuring stations along the pipeline.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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