Russian forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian troops

LONDON — Russian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region , Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers reported, as Moscow claimed fresh gains in its push to recapture parts of the border province that Kyiv seized in a shock offensive.

Ukraine launched a daring cross-border incursion into Kursk in August, marking the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II. Within days, Ukrainian units had captured 386 square miles of territory, including the strategic border town of Sudzha, and taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.

According to Kyiv, the operation aimed to gain a bargaining chip in future peace talks and to force Russia to divert troops away from its grinding offensive in eastern Ukraine.

But months after Ukraine’s thunder run, its soldiers in Kursk are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 troops, including some from Russian ally North Korea. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are at risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield show.

According to Telegram posts late Saturday by a Ukrainian-born, pro-Kremlin blogger, Russian operatives walked about 9 miles inside the pipeline, which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe. Some Russian troops spent several days in the pipe before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near Sudzha, blogger Yuri Podolyaka claimed.

The town had some 5,000 residents before the full-scale February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and it houses major gas transfer and measuring stations along the pipeline, which was once a major outlet for Russian natural gas exports through Ukrainian territory.

Another war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said fierce fighting was underway for Sudzha, and that Russian forces managed to enter the town through a gas pipeline. Russian Telegram channels showed photos of what they said were special forces operatives, wearing gas masks and moving along what looked like the inside of a large pipe.

Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed Saturday evening that Russian “sabotage and assault groups” used the pipeline in a bid to gain a foothold outside Sudzha. In a Telegram post, it said Russian troops were “detected in a timely manner” and that Ukraine responded with rockets and artillery.

“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the General Staff reported.

A third Russian war blogger argued that the attacking force lacked the logistical backup to succeed.

“Food, water, ammunition, communications, charging electrical devices, power banks, the approach of the main forces, evacuating the wounded … Two or three groups in the rear without all this — that’s a disaster,” the blogger, who describes himself as a soldier with the call sign Thirteenth, wrote on Telegram.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the accounts.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported Sunday that its troops had taken four villages north and northwest of Sudzha, with the closest lying some 7.5 miles from the center of the town. The claim came a day after the ministry reported the capture of three more villages near Sudzha.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the Russian claims.

Trump questions Ukraine’s survival, while France announces new aid package

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that Ukraine “may not survive” as he continued to withhold American arms and intelligence in an effort to force Kyiv into peace negotiations with its invader.

In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump was asked about a warning from Polish President Andrzej Duda “that without American support, Ukraine will not survive” and whether he was “comfortable” with that outcome.

He replied, “Well, it may not survive anyway.” He added, “But we have some weaknesses with Russia. You know, it takes two.”

In other developments, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Sunday that France will use profits from frozen Russian assets to finance an additional $211 million in arms for Ukraine, the latest in a series of military aid deliveries funded through the assets.

In an interview with the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper, Lecornu said Paris will send new 155mm artillery shells and glide bombs for Mirage 2000 fighter jets it previously gave to Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones said to target Russian oil infrastructure

Elsewhere, Russian officials and Telegram channels reported that Ukrainian drones targeted oil infrastructure in southern and central Russia overnight into early Sunday. One drone struck an oil depot in Cheboksary, a Russian city on the Volga River about 620 miles from the border, the local governor reported. According to Oleg Nikolaev, nobody was hurt, but the depot needed reconstruction work.

Footage circulated on Russian Telegram channels of what appeared to be a fire at or near one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, in the southern city of Ryazan. Shot, a news channel on Telegram, cited local residents as saying they heard several nighttime blasts near the refinery. The local governor, Pavel Malkov, said Ukrainian drones had been shot down nearby. He claimed there had been no casualties or damage.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on either incident.

Satellite internet fuels sharp social media exchange

Concerns that Elon Musk could turn off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine prompted a sharp exchange Sunday on X involving Musk, the Polish foreign minister and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski wrote that if Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, which runs Starlink, “proves to be an unreliable provider,” Poland “will be forced to look for other suppliers.”

Musk told Sikorski: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”

Rubio told Sikorski: “No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink. And say thank you because without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now.”

In fact, Russians are already on the border with Poland because the Russian region of Kaliningrad lies on Poland’s northern border.

The back-and-forth between the three concluded with Sikorski thanking Rubio: “Thank you, Marco, for confirming that the brave soldiers of Ukraine can count on the vital internet service provided jointly by the U.S and Poland. Together, Europe and the United States can help Ukraine to achieve a just peace.”

Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Zeke Miller in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.

伦敦——据乌克兰军方和俄罗斯战争博客报道，俄罗斯特种部队进入库尔斯克地区的一条天然气管道，从后方袭击了乌克兰部队。与此同时，莫斯科声称在夺回基辅在一次突袭中占领的边境省份部分地区的行动中取得了新的进展。

8月，乌克兰对库尔斯克发动了一次大胆的跨境入侵，这是二战以来对俄罗斯领土规模最大的一次进攻。短短几天内，乌克兰军队就占领了386平方英里的领土，其中包括具有战略意义的边境城镇苏贾，并俘虏了数百名俄罗斯战俘。

基辅方面表示，此次行动旨在为未来的和平谈判争取筹码，并迫使俄罗斯将兵力从其在乌克兰东部的持续攻势中转移出去。

但数月过去，乌克兰在库尔斯克的“闪电突袭”之后，其士兵已疲惫不堪，伤痕累累，遭受了超过5万名敌军（包括一些来自俄罗斯盟友朝鲜的部队）的持续攻击。公开的战场地图显示，数万名乌克兰士兵面临被包围的危险。

据一位出生于乌克兰、亲克里姆林宫的博主尤里·波多利亚卡（Yuri Podolyaka）周六晚间在Telegram上发布的帖子称，俄罗斯特工在一条输气管道内行进了约9英里（约14.5公里）。这条管道此前一直被莫斯科用来向欧洲输送天然气。波多利亚卡声称，一些俄罗斯士兵在管道内停留了数日，之后从后方苏贾附近袭击了乌克兰部队。

在 2022 年 2 月全面入侵乌克兰之前，该镇约有 5000 名居民，并且设有沿管道的主要天然气输送和计量站，该管道曾经是俄罗斯天然气经乌克兰领土出口的主要通道。

另一位化名为“两位少校”的战地博主称，苏贾镇正在发生激烈战斗，俄军已通过一条天然气管道进入该镇。俄罗斯的Telegram频道发布了一些照片，照片显示疑似特种部队人员戴着防毒面具，沿着一条看似大型管道内部的通道行进。

乌克兰总参谋部周六晚间证实，俄罗斯“破坏和袭击小组”利用这条输油管道企图在苏贾以外地区站稳脚跟。乌克兰总参谋部在Telegram上发帖称，俄军“被及时发现”，乌克兰随后以火箭弹和火炮予以还击。

总参谋部报告称：“目前，俄军特种部队正遭到侦察、阻击和摧毁。敌军在苏贾河的损失非常惨重。”

第三位俄罗斯战争博主则认为，进攻部队缺乏后勤保障，因此无法取得成功。

“食物、水、弹药、通讯、给电子设备充电、移动电源、主力部队的推进、伤员撤离……后方两三个小组缺少这些——那就是一场灾难，”这位自称代号“十三”的士兵博主在 Telegram 上写道。

美联社无法独立核实这些说法。

俄罗斯国防部周日宣布，其部队已占领苏贾北部和西北部的四个村庄，其中距离苏贾市中心最近的村庄约7.5英里。此前一天，该部还宣布攻占了苏贾附近的另外三个村庄。

乌克兰方面尚未对俄罗斯的说法作出回应。

特朗普质疑乌克兰的生存能力，与此同时，法国宣布新的援助计划

与此同时，唐纳德·特朗普总统在周日播出的一次采访中表示，乌克兰“可能无法幸存”，他继续扣留美国武器和情报，试图迫使基辅与入侵者进行和平谈判。

在接受福克斯新闻频道“周日早间展望”节目采访时，特朗普被问及波兰总统安杰伊·杜达的警告——“如果没有美国的支持，乌克兰将无法生存”，以及他是否“乐见”这一结果。

他回答说：“嗯，它或许也撑不下去。”他又补充道：“但我们和俄罗斯之间存在一些弱点。你知道，合作需要双方共同努力。”

另据报道，法国国防部长塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努周日表示，法国将利用冻结的俄罗斯资产的利润，为乌克兰额外提供价值 2.11 亿美元的武器，这是通过这些资产提供资金的一系列军事援助中的最新一笔。

勒科尔努在接受《星期日论坛报》采访时表示，巴黎将向乌克兰提供新的 155 毫米炮弹和滑翔炸弹，用于其之前向乌克兰提供的幻影 2000 战斗机。

据称乌克兰无人机袭击了俄罗斯石油基础设施

另据俄罗斯官员和Telegram频道报道，乌克兰无人机于周日凌晨袭击了俄罗斯南部和中部地区的石油基础设施。当地州长报告称，一架无人机袭击了位于伏尔加河畔、距边境约620英里（1000公里）的俄罗斯城市切博克萨雷的一个油库。据奥列格·尼古拉耶夫称，无人受伤，但油库需要重建。

俄罗斯Telegram频道上流传着一段视频，显示俄罗斯南部城市梁赞附近一家大型炼油厂似乎发生火灾。Telegram上的新闻频道Shot援引当地居民的话说，他们听到炼油厂附近夜间传来数声爆炸。当地州长帕维尔·马尔科夫表示，乌克兰无人机在附近被击落。他声称没有人员伤亡或财产损失。

乌克兰方面尚未对这两起事件发表评论。

卫星互联网促进了社交媒体的快速交流。

有人担心埃隆·马斯克可能会关闭向乌克兰提供的星链卫星互联网服务，这引发了周日马斯克、波兰外交部长和美国国务卿马可·卢比奥在 X 上的激烈争论。

波兰外交部长拉德克·西科尔斯基写道，如果运营星链的马斯克的火箭公司 SpaceX “被证明是不可靠的供应商”，波兰“将被迫寻找其他供应商”。

马斯克对西科尔斯基说：“闭嘴，小人物。你只需支付一小部分费用。而且星链是无可替代的。”

鲁比奥告诉西科尔斯基：“没有人威胁要切断乌克兰与星链的连接。你应该感谢星链，因为如果没有星链，乌克兰早就输掉这场战争了，俄罗斯人现在应该已经在波兰边境了。”

事实上，俄罗斯人已经进入了波兰边境，因为俄罗斯的加里宁格勒地区位于波兰的北部边境。

三人之间的交流最终以西科尔斯基向鲁比奥致谢而告终：“谢谢你，马尔科，你证实了乌克兰勇敢的士兵可以依靠美国和波兰共同提供的关键互联网服务。欧洲和美国携手合作，可以帮助乌克兰实现公正的和平。”

美联社驻巴黎记者西尔维·科尔贝和驻佛罗里达州西棕榈滩记者泽克·米勒对本报道亦有贡献。