Ukrainian troops spent month in underground tunnels sifting through barricade of Russian bodies to launch counterattack

Soldiers fighting for Ukraine crawled through 15 kilometres of gas pipeline filled with corpses to launch a surprise attack on Russian troops in Kharkiv.Volodymyr Zelensky had last month hailed the “stunning success” of the operation by the Khartiia corps, launched to prevent Russian troops slipping into the eastern city of Kupyansk.Now, Kyiv has revealed that its troops spent as long as a month underground, battling through freezing water and sifting through the bodies of dead Russian soldiers that Moscow had built up as a barricade inside the long tunnels - before opening fire on a group of Russian soldiers. "The Russians even used their own dead, those who died or perished inside the pipe, and stacked their bodies into this barricade like sandbags," recalls a Colombian volunteer with the callsign ‘Agijon’, who spent around one month underground. Ukrainian troops say they crawled through 15km of gas pipeline (YouTube/Khartiia and 23rd Assault Regiment)Agijon was one of the troops, alongside his Colombian colleague with the callsign ‘Cuerbo’, who dragged Russian corpses away by hand as they sifted through the barricades of rubble and debris stretching as much as 200 metres long. Some of the shortest members of Ukraine’s Khartiia corps had trained for weeks in pipes of a similar size, practising with gas masks and oxygen tanks, ahead of Operation Veles, the unit said. They pair then heard Russian voices down the tunnel, and Cuerbo told his colleagues he would investigate, ordering his colleagues to stay behind. (Skelya 425)Advancing alone for the most significant and risky push in the operation, stitching his armour so it did not snag in the pipe as he crawled forward around 50 metres in the tunnel, Khartiia said.He crawled up close to the Russian troops before opening fire, he said. “If we had all gone together, a single Russian, firing a burst into the darkness of the pipe, would have laid us all down,” Cuerbo said. “So I chose to risk my own life for the guys. I crawled right up close, opened fire, and was able to complete the combat task.”Russian troops had infiltrated the pipeline, Ukrainians said (YouTube/Khartiia and 23rd Assault Regiment)In October, president Volodymyr Zelensky revealed details of Operation Veles, conducted near Kupiansk, a city in the northeastern Kharkiv region recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late 2022, which has ​since remained ⁠under constant Russian pressure.“It is ‌a strong operation, well planned and technology-driven,” he said. “The Russians tried to use underground gas pipelines to advance past our positions. “Our fighters turned this tactic ‌against the Russians and used the underground infrastructure ‌against the occupiers with extraordinary success.”A Colombian with the call-sign 'Cuerbo' carried out the most dangerous part of the mission (YouTube/Khartiia and 23rd Assault Regiment)An above-ground operation took place on the pipe’s known entry and exit points simultaneously with the underground operation.More than 100 Russians were killed and more than 30 captured in total as units attacked pipe exits and other Russian-held areas with artillery and drones, Khartiia added.But it was the underground operation which was marked out by the Ukrainian military for its bravery. “In the pipe, if contact happens there, it’s a 100% loss: nowhere to dodge, nowhere to hide,” said Hamlet Avagyan, commander of the 23rd Separate Assault Regiment who led the mission. Agijon was in the pipe for one month, the regiment said (YouTube/Khartiia and 23 Assault Regiment)Mr Zelensky added: “This is effectively our third landmark operation this year,” Zelensky said, referring to a number of audacious operations Ukraine has undertaken this year in a pursuit to reclaim territory.He said that Operation Veles “strengthens our positions and shows the Russians that they are failing to achieve the results their political leadership set for them in the Kupiansk area as well.”Russians had already attempted to use the underground gas pipelines to move through Ukraine’s positions and launch assault operations, Zelensky added, but Ukrainian soldiers had “successfully transformed this tactic.”