Barricades made of occupiers’ corpses: how Colombian assault troops from R.U.G. ’Khartiia’ regiment carried out Operation ’Veles’. VIDEO
Commanders and soldiers of the 23rd Assault Regiment of the 2nd Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine ‘Khartiia’ have provided details of the ‘Veles’ underground operation in the Kupiansk district.
This was reported by Censor.NET.
Details
Hamlet Avagyan, commander of the R.U.G. assault regiment, explained that after the clearance operation in the village of Myrove (formerly Moskovka until 2025), the commander of ‘Khartiia’, Obolenskyi, proposed using an abandoned gas pipeline through which the Russians had infiltrated Kupiansk.
It was decided to launch a parallel ground assault as well. Colombian volunteers from the regiment were brought in to assist with the operation.
"When we were planning, there was a proposal to start with the pipeline and also to storm the area from above, where we knew where the Russians were entering and exiting, to make the task easier for the men in the pipeline. Because in the pipeline, if there is contact, it will mean 100 per cent losses. After all, there’s nowhere to dodge or hide, and you wouldn’t be able to carry out tactical manoeuvres," Avagyan noted.
During training, they selected the shortest men. To this end, they brought in a pipe of the appropriate diameter and trained the soldiers inside it for a long time.
"In gas masks, with oxygen, because if you go a little deeper into the pipe, there’s no oxygen," he added.
The Russians had mined the roads leading to the gas pipeline, so the assault troops were initially sent out on a reconnaissance mission.
Barricades made of corpses
The soldiers marched 15 kilometres, climbed into the pipeline and found enemy barricades there. They were tasked with dismantling them so they could launch a counter-attack inside the pipeline. It turned out that the occupiers had used, amongst other things, the corpses of their own comrades to build the barricades.
"The Russians even used their own dead – those who had died in the pipe – and piled the bodies into a barricade. We had to drag them away so that we could move forward," says a Colombian volunteer from the R.U.G. regiment "Agikhon".
The barricades were about 200 metres long. The Colombians dismantled them and heard the voices of the occupiers.
The assault troops had to operate in extreme conditions: the cold, and a very narrow pipe through which water flowed 24/7.
"In the jungle or in the city, you have more room to manoeuvre. But in a pipe, you’re firing horizontally, and that’s frightening because that day could be your last," explains a Colombian volunteer from the R.U.G. regiment ‘Kuerbo’. "We were trained for many things: storming trenches, CQB [close-quarters combat], operating in dense vegetation – although we Colombians are used to fighting in thickets. It helped that I’d worked in mines in Colombia. It’s somewhat similar, but still not quite such a confined space."
At the same time, the R.U.G. launched a ground assault on the entrances to the tunnel to make movement inside safer. Fighting continued underground as well.
"When I set out on the assault, it was very cold and I couldn’t see a thing, so I decided to go without a body armour vest or a helmet, armed only with a grenade and a rifle. So I crawled for about 40–50 metres – as slowly as I could – to get as close as possible to where the Russians were.
I didn’t want my comrades to come with me, because I realised that if we all went in together, a single Russian who opened fire could kill us all. So I chose to risk my life for their sake. "When I crawled there on my own, I got as close as I could – and managed to carry out the mission," says "Kuerbo".
The assault team managed to drive the Russians out of the gas pipeline section and outmanoeuvre them on their own turf.
"Whilst we were storming from above and drawing the enemy’s attention, our men were also moving in from below," noted Hamlet Avagyan. "We’ll soon clear out whatever’s left. It’s impossible to cover that distance from above."
Operation ‘Veles’
- The day before, the 2nd Corps of the Ukrainian National Guard "Khartiia" released the first footage of the "Veles" underground operation, which it is conducting alongside other units of the Defence Forces.
- Later, the National Guard’s "Khartiia" Corps provided details of the "Veles" underground counter-offensive operation, during which the Defence Forces managed to advance more than 15 km through underground tunnels into the enemy’s rear in the Kupiansk sector.
