Ukraine and Russia take the war underground as drones dominate the battlefield
Ukraine launched Operation Veles in October, fighting in disused underground gas pipelines near Kupiansk in the east. Experts say the tunnels offer protection from drones but cannot be used on a large scale.
A new kind of combat has emerged in eastern Ukraine, where soldiers are fighting beneath the ground in disused gas pipelines and tunnels around the town of Kupiansk. The New York Times reported on it at the end of October. The tactic has gained ground because drones saturate the battlefield and threaten infantry moving in the open on both sides of a war now in its fourth year.
Operation Veles
Kyiv launched Operation Veles in October, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that it had been a "great success". Specially trained Ukrainian soldiers advanced 15 kilometres along a gas pipeline only 1.2 metres in diameter to secure the tunnel's entrance. The pipeline passes under the Oskil River and leads into Kupiansk, which Russian forces have been trying to capture. According to Zelensky, around a hundred Russian soldiers were killed and more than 30 taken prisoner.
Russian precedent
Huseyn Aliyev of the University of Glasgow says Russia began using this method and that Ukraine is now adopting it for the first time. Will Kingston-Cox of the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona points to Avdiivka in January 2024, when Russian troops apparently reached the rear of Ukrainian fortified positions through a drainage conduit. Russia also used the tactic around Kursk and in the Kupiansk area. In September 2025, the independent outlet iStories reported that Moscow was stockpiling ammunition and supplies to use the Kupiansk pipeline for a larger offensive.
Ryhor Nizhnikau of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs says the Soviet-era pipeline network makes this possible and also exists in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions and parts of Zaporizhzhia. Gustav Gressel of Austria's National Defence Academy adds that sewage and drainage systems could serve the same purpose in cities.
Protection from drones, but limited scope
Gressel notes that radio-controlled drones lose signal at tunnel entrances, while the cables of fibre-optic drones often snag on corners. Nizhnikau stresses that tunnel fighting is only a support measure, since many parts of the front have no such infrastructure. Kingston-Cox adds that a narrow pipe cannot support a larger force, though it can help "break local deadlocks".
