Kathrine Frich
The pipes measure barely one metre across.
Modern warfare has made the open sky a terrifying place to be.
With buzzing cameras watching every inch of the ground from above, moving in daylight has become nearly impossible for soldiers on the front line.
To survive and advance, fighters have had to look for a path in the dark.
Fighting in the dark
In northeastern Ukraine, troops are waging a brutal secret battle inside decommissioned Soviet-era gas pipelines near Kupiansk, according to The Telegraph.
Named Operation Veles after the Slavic god of the underworld, the underground push reclaimed just over 14 kilometres of territory, killed 100 Russian troops, and captured 30 others.
The pipes measure barely one metre across. Soldiers must crawl through thick mud or ride makeshift carts known as the “Kupian metro” while choking on dust, chemical fumes, and the stench of rotting corpses.
When the 33-year-old infantryman nicknamed Hamster finally climbed out after six days below ground to recover a fallen comrade’s body, the former vegetable seller could barely believe it. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve entered another world,” he told The Telegraph.
Sleeping among the dead
Inside the 16-kilometre tunnel network, only fragile sandbag walls and thermal cameras separate Ukrainian and Russian forces, The Telegraph reports. Because sound echoes far down the metal pipe, the slightest rustle triggers gunfire and grenade blasts that leave men deafened.
Kort, a 22-year-old platoon commander from the 13th Khartija Brigade, spent 18 days down there and once had to lie silent in the pitch black for a full day alongside three dead enemy soldiers.
“It stank for a whole 24 hours,” Kort told The Telegraph, recalling how he urged his men to attack rather than sleep there again.
The toxic air and lack of oxygen caused men to vomit, cough up blood, and suffer severe skin infections. A 51-year-old former shoemaker called Viking spent up to 45 days in the pipe during one tour, while a 27-year-old medic named Vepr passed out while dragging a wounded colleague to safety.
“They revived me with oxygen… I came to and continued working,” Vepr said.
Safer than the sky
To break the Russian lines, Ukrainian units sent in armed ground robots to blow up barricades while surface drones cut off enemy food, water, and ammunition, according to The Telegraph.
Even as Moscow pumps poison gas into flooded sections, Ukrainian planners say controlling the pipe solves major supply problems.
Oddly enough, some troops still prefer the filthy pipe to the surface. Master Sergeant Santa, a 29-year-old former chef’s assistant, explained to The Telegraph why he favoured the cramped darkness.
“It’s damp, dark, stinks, and there are corpses lying around,” he said, adding: “But I actually felt safer there, under the ‘closed sky.’ The greatest horror of today’s war are drones.”
