A Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said Russian special forces walked miles along the inside of a gas pipeline before surprising Ukrainian forces from the rear.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are at risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield show.

Russian special forces have hiked through nine miles of gas pipeline to ambush Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region — as Moscow claims it retook three new settlements from Kyiv on Sunday. The Kremlin fighters allegedly spent days hiding out inside a gas pipeline connecting Russia to Europe before emerging late Saturday to attack Ukrainian soldiers stationed near the border city of Sudzha,