Ukraine's forces in Kursk almost surrounded, says former Russian president

Russian special forces walked miles inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that recent advances by Russian forces against Ukraine in the Kursk region suggest that Kyiv's soldiers were almost surrounded, reported Reuters.

A Ukrainian serviceman patrols a street next to buildings damaged during recent fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region in August 2024. (Reuters)

“The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost closed. The offensive continues,” the former Russian president wrote on Telegram.

According to Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers, Russian special forces walked miles inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region.

Moscow had used the pipeline until recently to send gas to Europe. According to the Associated Press, some Russian troops had spent several days in the pipe before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near the town of Sudzha.

Russian Telegram channels showed pictures of special forces in gas masks and lights, some using colourful Russian curses, along the inside of what looked like a large pipe, according to Reuters.

A gas worker walks between pipes in a compressor and distribution station of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline, some 30 km (19 miles) from the south western Russian city of Kursk January 4, 2006. (Reuters)

Ukraine Ukraine’s General Staff had also confirmed on Saturday that Russian “sabotage and assault groups” used the pipeline in a bid to gain a foothold outside the town of Sudzha.

“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the General Staff had claimed.

Ukraine's offensive in Kursk

Last year, Ukraine launched a daring cross-border incursion into Kursk in August. It was the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II.

Within days, Ukrainian units had captured 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory, including the strategic border town of Sudzha, and taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.

Kyiv was hoping the Russian city would act as a bargaining chip in future peace talks and force Russia to divert troops away from its offensive in eastern Ukraine.

But Ukraine's troops in Kursk have seen their position worsen in recent weeks as Russian forces pushed back, according to AFP.

(Inputs from agencies)