Russian Federation Says Military Personnel Who Crawled To Sudzha On A Gas Pipeline Were Seriously Ill But Were Denied Payments
- 27.06.2025, 9:58
The General Staff took the position of "we didn't send them there."
Russian military personnel who crawled along a gas pipeline to AFU positions in Suzha have suffered serious illnesses, some with lung cancer. But Russian authorities denied them awards and payments, according to Kremlin propagandist Anastasia Kashevarova.
Kashevarova called the rush through the gas pipe "one of the terrible but important moments" of the Russian counteroffensive in the Kursk region.
- Our fighters walked inside the gas pipe for 15 kilometers 750 meters and lived inside it for another six days, waiting for the offensive. On X day they were at the enemy's rear. What was going on in that pipe is terrible to imagine. �...> All those who were in the pipe, received lung damage. The fighters were suffocating. Someone has already died," the propagandist wrote.
But, according to her, these diseases are not officially recognized as either military trauma or severe lung damage, which excludes the possibility of receiving compensation or social benefits.
- At the same time, they are all doomed and received serious lung damage. But they are not entitled to death benefits either, because they died not from combat trauma, but from lung cancer or TELA (pulmonary embolism), or from acute bronchitis, as they were initially diagnosed in the hospital," Kashevarova said.
She added that the participants of the assault were also denied awards, and blamed the situation on the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, which behaves "undignified" and "took the position 'We didn't send them there'."
Remember, the invasion of the AFU in the Kursk region began on August 6, 2024. It became the first military operation under Ukrainian flags on the territory of the Russian Federation. By early September, the Ukrainian army controlled more than a thousand square kilometers of the region, including the city of Sudzha.
After a series of counterattacks by the Russian Armed Forces and the involvement of thousands of North Korean soldiers, the AFU lost most of the occupied territories. By December, the fighting had shifted to Suja, and in January-February 2025, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops began.
"Ukrainska Pravda", citing a Ukrainian military officer based in Kursk region, wrote that on March 8, 2025, about 100 Russian servicemen passed along the gas pipeline to AFU positions, but it "was not a surprise."
He also described an attempt by the Russians to stealthily move an assault company along the gas pipeline pipe. But he confirmed that Ukrainian forces detected the attackers in time and stopped their advance.