Russian attempt to storm Kupiansk using gas pipeline 'thwarted,' 40 soldiers 'eliminated,' Ukraine's 7th Corps says
Ukraine's 7th Rapid Response Corps said on Jan. 5 that it had thwarted Russia's latest attempt to launch an attack on the Kupiansk sector in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast by using the Soyuz gas pipeline.
Russia attempted to use the pipeline for "a covert exit and further accumulation of forces" in the Kupiansk area, in an operation that involved around 50 people, according to the 7th Corps. It claimed it "eliminated" at least 40 of them.
Russia's recent pipeline operation had occurred north of Novoplatonivka, a village just five kilometers above the town of Borova, trying to move upward along the Oskil River in the direction of Kupiansk, the 7th Corps said.
While its latest pipeline operation failed to achieve its objectives, Russia continues to deploy its troops in small groups to infiltrate between positions, according to the 7th Corps.
The report comes as Russia tries to push across the front by launching heavy offensive operations on multiple axes, including in the Kupiansk sector, to recapture the city it lost to a 2022 Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russian troops are attempting to close in on Kupiansk from the north and east, aiming to solidify their presence on the western side of the Oskil River.
Using underground passages in warfare is a centuries-old tactic that armies have used to bypass defenses by moving undetected.
Russia has adopted the method, using decommissioned gas pipelines to bypass Ukrainian defenses and the threats posed by modern warfare. The goal is to avoid being detected by drones, artillery, and other strike systems, retired Ukrainian officer and defense expert Viktor Kevliuk told the Kyiv Independent in September 2025.
"The actions of the occupiers are under constant control of the Defense Forces and are being stopped," the 7th Corps said, praising its 77th Airborne Brigade's work in the Kupiansk sector.
The pipeline tactic also has a huge cost for Moscow's forces — Russian independent media outlet Astra in July published a video of a soldier describing the chaos inside a pipe in Russia's Kursk Oblast where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in 2024.
The man, later identified as Igor Garus from St. Petersburg, claimed that "dozens of soldiers suffocated, committed suicide, or died in panic and delirium."
"People were going crazy there. One shot himself. One… pointed a machine gun at himself. The second one smashed his head in," Garus says in the video.
