In the town of Sudhza, in the area of Russia's Kursk region that has been controlled for seven months by Ukraine's armed forces, the gas pipeline no longer transports fuel, but hundreds, if not thousands, of Russian soldiers. Hoping to surprise and dislodge Ukrainian soldiers in a very delicate defensive posture, the Russian general staff has mounted an operation for the past week to infiltrate its infantry as close as possible to Sudhza through a major gas pipeline that carried Siberian gas to Europe until just six months ago.

According to videos posted by pro-Kremlin propaganda Telegram channels, Russian infantrymen covered 12 to 15 kilometers crouching down – the diameter of these infrastructures is 140 cm – for two whole days. Then, for a further four days, they waited for the order to come out into the open to attack Ukrainian positions. The advantage of hiding inside the gas pipeline is that it offers protection against drones, mines and enemy artillery, which generally cause attackers to suffer heavy losses in open terrain.

On the Russian side, the operation was hailed as a success. On the Ukrainian side, images filmed by reconnaissance drones show groups of Russian infantry emerging from a gas pumping station, suggesting that the enemy maneuver had been anticipated. Ukrainian war correspondent Yuri Butusov, usually well-informed and candid about the setbacks suffered by his army, said the gas pipeline had been under close surveillance since the morning of Saturday, March 8, as a result of indiscretions on Russian social media. The attackers reportedly suffered heavy losses.

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