How Ukraine’s Khartiia Corps Pushed Russians Back 15 KM via Underground Pipes

In 2025, on the Kupiansk front, Russian troops began using old gas pipelines to slip deep behind Ukrainian lines. Built from thick steel and buried mostly underground, these pipes once carried gas between Russia and Ukraine, and they’re extremely hard to destroy. Khartiia Corps was sent in to shut down the infiltration route, and soldiers quickly realized how much these pipes could offer in the age of drone warfare: logistics, evacuation, rotation. What began as a counter-infiltration mission grew into something much bigger. This is Operation Veles, where soldiers now live, move, and fight across kilometers of underground tunnels. Step inside this underground world with us.