London (AP) – Russian special forces have entered a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian rear units The Kursk regionBloggers of the military and Russian war of Ukraine reported, while Moscow claimed new gains in its efforts to take up parts of the border province that kyiv has grasped in a shock offensive.
Ukraine has launched a bold cross -border Foray into kursk In August, marking the largest attack on Russian territory since the Second World War. In a few days, the Ukrainian units had captured 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory, including the strategic border city in Southzha, and made hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.
According to Kyiv, the operation was aimed at win a negotiation program In future peace talks and to force Russia to divert the troops from its Grow offensive in eastern Ukraine.
But months after the Thunder Run of Ukraine, its soldiers in Kursk are tired and bloodied by incessant assaults of more than 50,000 soldiers, some of them from North Russian Korea. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are likely to be surrounded, the open source cards in the battlefield.
According to Telegram publications late Saturday by a pro-Kremlin blogger of Ukrainian origin, Russian agents have traveled about 15 kilometers (9 miles) inside the pipeline, which Moscow had until recently Used to send gas to Europe. Some Russian troops have spent several days in the pipe before hitting Ukrainian rear units near Sudzha, said blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
The city had some 5,000 inhabitants before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and it shelters stations of transfer and gas measurement and measurement along the pipeline, which was once a major outlet for exports of Russian natural gas via a Ukrainian territory.
Another war blogger, who uses the alias two majors, said that ferocious fights were underway for Sudzha and that the Russian forces managed to enter the city by a gas pipeline. The Russian telegram channels have shown photos of what they said to be special forces agents, wearing gas masks and moving along what looked like a large pipe.
The general staff of Ukraine confirmed on Saturday evening that the Russian “sabotage and aggression groups” had used the pipeline in order to take a foothold outside Southzha. In a telegram post, he said that Russian troops had been “detected in a timely manner” and that Ukraine responded with rockets and artillery.
“Currently, Russian special forces are detected, blocked and destroyed. Enemy losses in Sudzha are very high, ”reported the general staff.
A third blogger of the Russian war argued that the attack force did not have logistical backup to succeed.
“Food, water, ammunition, communications, the burden of electrical devices, electricity banks, the approach of the main forces, evacuating the wounded … Two or three groups in the back without all this – it is a disaster,” wrote the blogger, who describes himself as a soldier with the thirteenth call, wrote on Telegram.
The Associated Press could not independently verify the accounts.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that its troops had taken four villages in the north and northwest of Southzha, the nearest being around 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the city center. The complaint intervened one day after the ministry reported the capture of three other villages near Sudzha.
Ukraine did not immediately comment on the Russian claims.
Trump questions Ukraine’s survival, while France announces a new aid package
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said in an interview that broadcast on Sunday that Ukraine “may not survive” when he continued to retain arms and American information in order to force kyiv in peace negotiations with his invader.
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures”, Trump was asked about a warning from Polish President Andrzej Duda “that without American support, Ukraine will not survive” and if he was “comfortable” with this result.
He replied: “Well, it may not survive anyway.” He added: “But we have some weaknesses with Russia. You know, it takes two.
In other developments, the French Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, said on Sunday that France would use the benefits of frozen Russian assets to finance an additional 195 million euros ($ 211 million) in weapons for Ukraine, the last of a series of military aid deliveries funded by assets.
In an interview with the tribune newspaper on Sunday, Lecornu said that Paris will send new 155 mm artillery shells and slippery bombs for the 2000 Mirage 2000 fighter planes which he previously given to Ukraine.
Ukrainian drones target Russian oil infrastructure
Elsewhere, Russian officials and telegrams have indicated that Ukrainian drones were targeting oil infrastructure in the south and center of Russia overnight before Sunday. A drone struck an oil depot in Cheboksary, a Russian city on the Volga river about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the border, local governor reported. According to Oleg Nikolaev, no one was injured, but the deposit needed reconstruction work.
Images have circulated on the Russian telegram channels of what seemed to be a fire in one of the largest oil refineries in Russia, in the southern city of Ryazan. Shot, an information channel on Telegram, cited local residents saying that they had heard several night explosions near the refinery. Local governor Pavel Malkov said Ukrainian drones had been slaughtered nearby. He said there had been no victims or damage.
Ukraine immediately commented on any of the incidents.
Internet by satellite Fuilles Social Social Socieux Exchange
The concerns that Elon Musk could deactivate the Internet service by Satellite Starlink in Ukraine caused a net exchange on Sunday on X involving Musk, the Polish Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski wrote that if Musk’s Rocket Company Spacex, who manages Starlink, “turns out to be an unreliable supplier”, Poland “will be forced to seek other suppliers”.
Musk told Sikorski: “Be calm, little man. You pay a tiny cost fraction. And there is no substitute for Starlink. »»
Rubio told Sikorski: “No one threatened to cut Ukraine from Starlink. And say thank you because without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war a long time ago and the Russians would be on the border with Poland at the moment. »»
In fact, the Russians are already on the border with Poland because the Russian region of Kaliningrad is on the northern border of Poland.
The back and forth between the three concluded with Sikorski thanking Rubio: “Thank you, Marco, for confirming that the brave soldiers in Ukraine can count on the Vital Internet service provided jointly by the United States and Poland. Together, Europe and the United States can help Ukraine achieve a fair peace. »»
___
The editors of the Associated Press Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Zeke Miller in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.
___
Follow the coverage of war by the AP in Ukraine in https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
