Russian special forces walked kilometres (km) inside of a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers reported, as Moscow moves to recapture parts of its border province that Kiev seized in a shock offensive.

The Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline used to bring gas from western Siberia via Sudzha to Ukraine but on January 1, Ukraine terminated all Russian gas transit through its territory.

Last August, Ukraine launched a daring cross-border incursion into Kursk, in what marked the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II. Within days, Ukrainian units had captured 1,000 square kilometres of territory, including the strategic border town of Sudzha, and taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.

According to Kiev, 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.

But months after Ukraine’s thunder run, its soldiers in Kursk are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 troops, including some from Russia’s ally North Korea. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers run the risk of being encircled, open source maps of the battlefield show.

According to Telegram posts by a Ukrainian-born, pro-Kremlin blogger, Russian operatives walked about 15 km inside the pipeline, which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe. 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.

The town had some 5,000 residents before the February, 2022, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and houses major gas transfer and measuring stations along the pipeline, once a major outlet for Russian natural gas exports through Ukrainian territory.

Another war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said fierce fighting was underway for Sudzha, and that Russian forces managed to enter the town through a gas pipeline. Russian Telegram channels showed photos of what they said were special forces operatives, wearing gas masks and moving along what looked like the inside of a large pipe.

"Fighting continued throughout the night in Sudzha," said Podolyaka, adding that part of the town was under Russian control.

Another war blogger, Yuri Kotenok, said that Ukrainian forces have been moving equipment away from Sudzha, closer to the border.

"At the moment, our units are attacking in the northeastern part of Sudzha and fighting in the area of ​​Lomonosov Street and the industrial zone of Sudzha," Kotenok said.

Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed on Saturday evening that Russian “sabotage and assault groups” used the pipeline in a bid to gain a foothold outside Sudzha. In a Telegram post, it said the Russian troops were “detected in a timely manner” and that Ukraine responded with rockets and artillery.

“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the General Staff reported.

According to Reuters, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that it had retaken the village of Lebedevka in Russia’s Kursk region, and taken the village of Novenke, across the border in Ukraine’s Sumy region. Russian forces had been largely absent from Ukraine's Sumy region since April, 2022, when they withdrew from the border province to refocus their forces on eastern Ukraine.

On Saturday, Kremlin announced that Russian forces had reclaimed three settlements in Kursk. Viktorovka, Nikolayevka, and Staraya Sorochina were retaken in an operation carried out by the Sever (North) group of forces, said a Russian Defence Ministry statement.

The ministry also claimed advances in eastern Ukraine, bordering Russia, saying four Ukrainian settlements had been captured over the past week in the Donetsk region. The ministry said Ukrainian forces suffered losses in personnel and military equipment, including armoured vehicles and artillery systems.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to the biggest confrontation between the West and Russia since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Both the Kremlin and White House have said missteps could trigger World War Three.

Russian forces’ advances in 2024 and US President Donald Trump’s upending of US policy on Ukraine and Russia have caused fears among European leaders that Ukraine will lose the war and that Trump is turning his back on Europe.

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk last August was the most serious attack on Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

In recent weeks and months, Russian forces have pushed Ukrainian forces back across the Kursk front, placing tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops in danger of being encircled.

Drone attack

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that a Ukrainian drone hit an industrial facility overnight in Russia's Volga river region of Chuvashia, some 1,300 km from the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said on Sunday.

The strike, one of the deepest yet into Russia by a Ukrainian drone, caused no casualties, Chuvashia Governor Oleg Nikolayev said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Emergency services were at the scene at the Kombinat Burevestnik facility in the region's capital, Cheboksaray, Nikolayev added. He provided no further details about the strike and the extent of any damage was unclear.

Russian authorities said earlier that air defence units had destroyed 88 Ukrainian drones overnight, with no injuries or other damage reported.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said 52 of the drones were destroyed over the border Belgorod region, while 13 were over the Lipetsk region and nine were over the Rostov region, both in Russia's southwest.

The rest of the Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia's Voronezh, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Ryazan and Kursk regions, the ministry said.

Unofficial Russian news Telegram channels said the Ukrainian attacks on Ryazan and Lipetsk had targeted local oil refineries.

Ukrainian Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, who heads the Center for Countering Disinformation, part of the National Security and Defense Council, said, without providing evidence or saying directly that Ukrainian drones were involved, the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant in Lipetsk was under attack.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports on what was targeted in the attacks.

Earlier, at least 14 people were killed and 37 wounded, including five children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's eastern city of Dobropillia and a settlement in Kharkiv region overnight, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

Russian forces attacked Dobropillia with ballistic missiles, multiple rockets, and drones, causing damage to eight multi-storey buildings and 30 vehicles, according to the ministry. The assault resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including five children, and left 30 others wounded.

Sanctions

France will use interest from Russian assets to fund another 195 million euros ($211 million) in arms for Ukraine, Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecournu said in a newspaper interview.

France also plans to hand over some of its older armoured fighting vehicles, such as its AMX-10RC and personnel carriers, Lecournu told La Tribune weekend newspaper.

"Thanks to interest from frozen Russian assets, we will also tap new funds worth 195 million euros," Lecournu said, adding that it would be used for 155-mm artillery shells and glide bombs for Mirage 2000 fighter jets France has given Ukraine.

The Group of Seven powers agreed last year to provide Ukraine with $50 billion via a series of bilateral loans that Kiev could pay off using windfall profits from $300 billion of frozen Russian state assets.