Russian troops using civilians as 'human shields' to flee via Kupiansk pipeline, Khartiia Corps claims

Drone footage allegedly shows Russian troops using civilians, including children and elderly people, as human shields to flee via a gas pipeline in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast amid the Ukrainian push in the Kupiansk sector, Khartiia Corps said on Sept. 29.

Children, elderly people, and a person on crutches walked alongside draft-age men who were likely Russian soldiers wearing civilian clothes, according to Khartiia Corps' drone footage. The group was allegedly led from Kupiansk to the Ostrogozhsk-Shebelinka Gas Pipeline through the contested village of Holubivka near Kupiansk, the unit added.

Khartiia Corps said the group of civilians would have to walk more than 10 kilometers (about six miles) through the pipeline before exiting into a forest, where they would likely be transported to Russian-occupied territory.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the claim.

"The occupiers use this gas pipeline to secretly smuggle their assault troops into (Kupiansk)," Khartiia Corps, part of the National Guard, said in its statement on Facebook.

"Now they are using that same pipeline to abduct civilians."

Khartiia Corps said Ukrainian forces did not launch an attack because doing so would have put civilians at risk.

Throughout the full-scale war, the Russian military has regularly breached international warfare conventions, especially through its indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and the alleged abduction of civilians from occupied territories.

The Russian military has previously been accused of using civilians as "human shields" in hot spots of the war. In November 2025, the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutors' Office said a Russian commander ordered his soldiers who had entered Pokrovsk to use civilians as "human shields" via radio communications.

There are "several layers" to the Russian tactic, including using civilians as cover while moving through open areas without drone protection, abducting children and elderly people, and potentially using the tactic for propaganda purposes, according to a senior officer at the Corps' headquarters. Khartiia Corps said in its statement that Russian troops were filming the group as it walked.

The source said that while the illegal tactic does not affect the broader picture of the Ukrainian defense in the area, "the overall effect of using pipelines for logistics and human travel is big."

"Russia has been effectively using pipelines in Avdiivka, Sumy, and now in Kupiansk," the source told the Kyiv Independent.

"This literally allows them to teleport close to the front lines)."

Using civilians as cover in combat zones is a serious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL), while the forcible transfer of civilians is also prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. The laws of war also require combatants to distinguish themselves from the civilian population.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha reacted to the video released by Khartiia Corps, calling for what he described as "grave violations of international humanitarian law" to be properly documented and investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable.

"Russia is once again using Ukrainian civilians as instruments of war," Sybiha said in an X post on Sept. 28.

"Civilians cannot be used as instruments of war or forcibly transferred."