During the secret Operation Veles, Ukrainian forces dislodged Russian units from an abandoned gas pipeline near Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region. The offensive, conducted primarily underground with the support of drones and ground assault teams, resulted in approximately 100 Russian servicemen being killed and another 30 being captured. The Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to recapture over 14 square kilometers of territory, and some Ukrainian soldiers spent up to 45 days in the tunnels, according to The Telegraph. A gas pipeline, just 1–1.2 meters in diameter, turned into a full-fledged battlefield. Soldiers crawled through the mud, used makeshift carts, and fought their way through barricades of sandbags. Russian and Ukrainian units were stationed on both sides of the barriers, tracking enemy movements with thermal imaging cameras.
One of the operation's participants was a 22-year-old infantry platoon commander with the call sign "Kort ." He spent 18 days underground. During one episode, he had to spend 24 hours standing between three dead Russian soldiers.
He spent one night there and then said, "We need to storm it now because we won't be able to sleep there anymore. This is just fucking hell."
Russian positions were attacked using ground robots armed with explosives and machine guns. Simultaneously, Ukrainian drones and assault teams attacked enemy supply routes above ground, depriving Russian soldiers underground of water, food, medicine, and ammunition.
Conditions in the pipes were extremely harsh. Soldiers encountered toxic gases, oxygen deprivation, infections, and constant dust. Some lost consciousness. A military medic with the call sign "Silence" himself once lost consciousness after evacuating a wounded soldier.
At the same time, the 29-year-old sergeant with the call sign "Santa" admitted that he felt safer underground than on the surface, where drones are a constant threat.
"The worst horror of today's war is drones," he says.
The Ukrainian military is already developing specialized ground robots for reconnaissance and combat operations in pipelines. Military sources at the publication expect that underground operations may become more widespread along the entire front line, which stretches approximately 1,200 kilometers.
Source: Kanal13
