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Today, there are important updates from the Sumy direction.
Here, Russia desperately needed an innovative tactic to have a chance of breaking through the Ukrainian defenses. However, as the Russian assault units made the same mistake six times in a row, the consequences of their venture quickly became devastating.
Russia is becoming increasingly desperate because its conventional assaults in the area are failing, leaving its forces unable to break into the forest belt or suppress Ukrainian drone operators. The terrain has turned this sector into a deadly trap, as Ukrainians control the forest while Russian assault groups must cross open fields completely exposed to drone and artillery fire. Ukrainian forces maintain full fire control over the approaches, striking the enemy long before they reach the tree line. These repeated frontal assaults caused severe manpower losses and stalled advances entirely, forcing Russian commanders to abandon predictable attacks and search for a concealed infiltration route instead.
The plan was to replicate the success of the Russian infiltration into Sudzha during the Ukrainian incursion, when Russian soldiers used a pipeline as cover to bypass Ukrainian positions. Now, the Russian forces attempted to use the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod gas pipeline to surprise the Ukrainians again. Russian assault groups advanced seventeen kilometers through the pipeline system, entering via a collector shaft on Russian territory. Along the route, they established two rest points positioned approximately five kilometers apart, allowing troops to remain inside the pipeline for up to seven days. However, movement inside the pipeline is uncomfortable as it is only one hundred and forty centimeters in height, forcing Russians to crouch. Several openings were also prepared on the Ukrainian side. These serve as decoys to divert attention, while others were designated exit points for the assault teams.
The first assault began at dawn south of Yablunivka, where Russian infantry launched a coordinated attack, with some troops emerging from a gas pipeline while others advanced through nearby tree lines. Ukrainian drone operators quickly detected the movement and directed FPV drone strikes against the assault groups before they could disperse or take cover in forested areas. As a result of the Ukrainian crossfire with drones, the Russian forces were eliminated.
Despite the failure of the initial assault, Russian forces committed an even larger contingent to the operation. By monitoring all known and suspected exit points around the clock, Ukrainian soldiers could immediately direct FPV drones and artillery onto the new assault wave as soon as fifteen Russian soldiers emerged from the pipeline. The attack was quickly contained, while drone operators later eliminated the remaining infantry with grenade drops as they had nowhere to hide. During this engagement, forty-four Russian troops were killed in just thirty minutes, stopping the assault entirely.
In another attempt north of Nova Sich, six Russian soldiers advanced through the gas pipeline. Despite reducing the size of the infiltration unit to avoid detection, Ukrainian drones with thermal cameras spotted them even before they fully approached the defensive line. As additional Russian assault troops attempted to spread out after exiting the pipeline, Ukrainian artillery targeted them directly in the field, while the remaining soldiers were later neutralized by strikes from Vampire heavy drones.
Geolocated footage from a separate assault showed Russian troops emerging from the same pipeline southwest of the village of Yablunivka. This time, Russian forces also launched a diversionary attack using motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles from Russian-held territory. The diversion failed to distract Ukrainian defenders because drone surveillance was already expecting pipeline exits and refused to redirect resources, killing at least thirty-five Russian soldiers, wounding seventeen others, and destroying three motorcycles and four ATV.
During their next assault, twenty-nine Russian troops irrationally attempted the same tactic again. This time, the Ukrainian soldiers dispatched their quadcopter drones to eliminate the entire group before it could even reach the frontline. In total, Russian forces attempted variations of the same pipeline infiltration tactic five times over the course of a single month, with each assault launched less than a week after the previous one. By that stage, the element of surprise had completely disappeared as Ukrainians no longer needed to patrol large areas because they only had to monitor known pipeline exits.
