UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Oct. 22 — Ukrainian forces under the command of the 2nd Khartiia Corps conducted the underground counteroffensive operation called Veles, advancing 15 kilometers (9 miles) on the Kupiansk axis, the corps said.

For over a year, the Russians have been using the tactic of advancing through underground gas pipelines. That’s how they planned to reach Kupiansk, a city in eastern Kharkiv oblast and an important logistics hub connecting the region to the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The Ukrainian military decided to employ this tactic and studied the gas pipelines running through the Kharkiv oblast, Khartiia wrote.

“We predicted the Russian actions and mastered the tactics of underground combat. First, to stop the Russians there. Second, to make ineffective tactics they had been using on the ground and in the air,” Ihor Obolenskyi, the commander of Khartiia Corps, said.

Ukrainian units combined underground assaults, actions on the ground, and drone attacks. As a result, Ukrainian troops killed or injured over 100 and captured 30 Russian soldiers.

The training before the mission included physical and psychological preparations for the soldiers to operate in closed spaces, the work of sappers and engineers, and the use of life support systems underground.

A joint command center, in cooperation with the 429th unmanned systems regiment Achilles, coordinated the air operations. Units from the Main Directorate of Intelligence, the 23rd RUG assault unit, the 21st unmanned systems regiment Lava, and other units also took part in the mission.

The Veles mission made it possible for Russian troops to advance deeper into Kupiansk from the north and created conditions for further counterattacks by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv oblast, Khartiia said.

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