The New Subterranean Front

The Atlantic | Simon Shuster

Ukraine’s newest battlefield runs through at least 57 steel gas pipelines beneath the Donbas and Kharkiv regions, where Russian and Ukrainian troops fight in pipes one to two metres wide. Russian infiltrations began in spring 2025, exploiting tunnels to reach positions behind Ukrainian lines. The underground front is expanding.

Above ground, drones have helped create a kill zone dozens of miles wide across a front exceeding 700 miles, where movement is exposed to attack. Brigadier General Ihor Obolensky, commanding the Khartiia Corps, said Russia pioneered subterranean warfare and Ukraine is catching up. Under Operation Veles, Ukrainian forces have retaken about nine miles of pipeline after roughly six months of fighting; Ukraine holds two pipelines, while dozens remain under Russian control. Ukrainian officers and officials report Russian preparations for a winter offensive, with control of the Donbas pipeline network potentially shaping any advance.

Comment

The pipeline war is chiefly a sustainment problem. A dormant gas corridor has become a confined combat space in which Khartiia Corps troops depend on electric buggies, gas masks, oxygen tanks and month-long rotations. Those conditions limit how long a unit can fight, how quickly casualties can leave the tubes, and how much ammunition or engineering support can be moved forward.

The second-order consequence falls on Ukraine’s manpower and defensive timeline. If retaking roughly nine miles of pipeline has already taken about six months under Operation Veles, then each cleared section may require a permanent guard force while dozens of tubes remain in Russian hands. That could pull infantry away from surface positions around Kupiansk and other threatened sectors, even before a reported Russian winter offensive begins.

Strategic Question for Discussion

As Operation Veles extends beyond the nine miles already retaken, which will constrain Khartiia Corps more: the manpower needed to guard cleared pipelines or the sustainment burden of fighting deeper underground?

The pattern suggests that guarding cleared sections will become the harder constraint. Underground assaults are demanding, but reclaimed pipelines create fixed commitments that consume troops, supplies and rotation capacity across a long period. My assessment is that the balance will turn on whether Ukraine can hold the recovered network without weakening its surface defence around Kupiansk.

Share your assessment in the comments below.

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