Russian troops hide in gas pipelines to escape Ukrainian drones - Bloomberg
Photo: Russia uses pipe tactics to occupy territories (Getty Images)
Russian soldiers have been creeping underground through empty gas pipelines to hide from Ukrainian drone strikes. The enemy is also using this tactic to seize Ukrainian territory, Bloomberg reports.
According to the media outlet, Russian forces also use the pipelines to move personnel and equipment.
Bloomberg recalls how Russians employed the pipeline tactic in the Kupiansk sector, attempting to capture territory in order to push toward the city itself.
Pipeline tactic is Moscow’s latest ‘innovation’
“Treating Soviet-era gas infrastructure as subterranean crawl spaces - an often physically demanding mission for troops that have been dubbed ‘pipeline forces’ - is the latest innovation in Moscow’s grinding effort to seize territory along a frontline that’s moved little in the last three years,” Bloomberg notes.
The article also mentions commentary by widely cited Moscow journalist and podcaster Valery Shiryaev on the pipeline tactic. He believes the use of pipelines is likely to become a Kremlin priority, given Ukraine’s dense network of gas infrastructure.
“This is a very valuable quality for the safe movement of troops,” Shiryayev said in an interview.
A Moscow journalist emphasized that the pipeline method is resistant to drone strikes and ideal for Russians, since it disorients Ukraine’s defense forces.
Bloomberg adds that Russia has not officially confirmed the use of pipeline tactics, and the Russian Defense Ministry didn’t respond to comment.
According to the media outlet, Ukrainian forces are responding to the Russian method by partially flooding the pipelines or wrapping them in barbed wire.
When else Russia uses pipeline tactic
Russia has already used underground movement during the capture of Avdiivka in February 2024.
Bloomberg recalls that a sewage collector was used as a passage, which allowed Russians to break through Ukrainian lines and helped storm the city, forcing Ukrainian forces to withdraw.
Since then, Russia has studied and refined the lessons of using pipelines in combat. The operation in Kursk was particularly thoroughly analyzed.
“A unit of more than 600 soldiers was sent some 15 kilometers through the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline… Emerging behind Ukrainian lines, the troops helped recapture Sudzha,” the media outlet writes.
Russia’s underground movement includes innovations such as the development of motorized carts for silent passage, according to Russian bloggers online.
As previously reported, the enemy is using gas pipelines in its strategy to seize Kupiansk, but Ukrainian forces regularly disrupt Russian plans, including by flooding and blowing up the pipes.
To find out more about why Russia has targeted Kupiansk and whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces are managing to hold the city, read our article on the topic.
