The National Guard's 2nd Corps' underground operation, dubbed "Charter" Operation Veles, continues. Troops have already advanced 15 kilometers. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this after a meeting with Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapaty, Charter commander Igor Obolensky, and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Brigadier General Pavlo Palisa.
According to the president, during Operation Veles in the Kupyansk region, more than 100 Russian soldiers were killed and over 30 were taken prisoner.
"The Russians have already attempted to use underground gas pipelines to advance through our positions and launch assaults. Ukrainian soldiers have successfully transformed this tactic, modernized it, and made it significantly more sophisticated and technologically advanced," the president said. He also added that the lives of Ukrainian soldiers are a priority. "This is essentially our third significant operation this year. The first was Operation Air Assault, a very significant one: we liberated over 800 square kilometers. Our second operation was Operation Vivaldi in the Donetsk region, precisely in those areas where the Russians had great ambitions, many plans, and many assaults. The guys liberated over 200 square kilometers. The third was Operation Veles, led by Charter, which strengthened our positions and demonstrated to the Russians that even at Kupyansk, they weren't achieving the results their political leadership had envisioned for them… This year, Ukraine's position on the front remains the strongest it has been in a long time in this war," the president stated.
During Operation Veles in the Kupyansk area, Ukrainian troops engaged in small arms fire within a gas pipeline approximately 1.2 meters in diameter and were able to advance several kilometers. As media has learned, the operation was aimed at making it impossible for the Russians to advance to the right bank of the Oskol, that is, the bank controlled by the Defense Forces.
To do this, the corps' soldiers descended into a main gas pipeline and marched along it, fighting for several kilometers. Such conditions are extremely difficult for small-arms combat.
"We fought in the pipeline itself—an area where maneuverability is very limited, and that's the whole difficulty. No one in Ukraine has ever done this before," the media source noted.
As a result of the operation, the Defence Forces cleared at least part of the pipeline of Russians. In addition, in parallel with the fighting in the pipe, the corps also destroyed the occupiers who had previously passed through the pipe to the right bank, climbed up and settled in the forest. Since the summer of 2025, the Russian army has used the Shebelinka-Ostrogozhsk gas pipeline, which runs under the Oskol River, to reach the right bank. This was the main route by which the occupiers penetrated the forest north of Kupyansk and the city itself.
Blowing up such a massive structure is practically impossible. Therefore, the Defense Forces were forced to either neutralize the Russians on the left bank with drones or clear them out on the right bank once they had already emerged from the pipe.
Source: Kanal13
