Deep inside a forest in drone-infested eastern Ukraine, a reporter stepped onto a small metal platform and descended into a subterranean world of modern warfare, where the only safe place is underground. Beneath the surface lies a vast logistics hub connected to a buried web of pipes that once carried natural gas between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian troops cannot stand upright in the pipes, which are less than four feet in diameter, yet they spend weeks at a time inside them, fighting Russians with guns and grenades, evacuating wounded soldiers and carrying in critical supplies. With drones stalking the battlefield above, Ukrainian strategists say this is the future of war.
The reporter's trip to the site began with a dangerous drive across open fields within range of drones that target anything that moves. The group was forced to sprint from the pickup truck more than once as a drone buzzed overhead, and soldiers aimed their weapons at the sky. Once inside the forest, the reporter put on protective goggles and a gas mask and joined troops heading into the pipe, where the smell of residual gas was expected to be even stronger.
Soldiers such as Oleksandr, who has rotated through the pipes for three months, describe the strain of living without fresh air or open sky. His lips were still dry and cracked after a 10-day break, and he said going without basic sanitation is difficult. Still, he said he prefers the pipes to the constant tension of being exposed to drones.
Russian forces were the first to use the abandoned industrial pipes in this war, reviving a tactic reminiscent of World War I. In the area near Kupiansk in northeastern Ukraine, about 80 miles of long-disused gas pipes run beneath the ground. Russian troops used them late last year to infiltrate Kupiansk, prompting the Ukrainian military to plan its own underground operation. Ukraine's Khartia Corps sought maps of the network, tracked down retired gas specialists who had built it, and installed ventilation, the most difficult task. During the first Ukrainian operation, soldiers ran into Russians inside a pipe and engaged in a fierce firefight before cutting an exit and digging a tunnel toward a pa
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing