Chechen Akhmat commander accepts official congratulations for Kursk’s ‘Pipe Operation’

Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, and Alexander Khinshtein, acting governor of the Kursk region, held a meeting dedicated to the Chechen unit’s participation in the so-called ‘Operation Pipe’, aimed at infiltrating Ukrainian positions in the area. This episode of combat operations, according to Alaudinov, has become one of the key episodes in recent events on the front.

Operation Pipe involved the covert infiltration of Russian units into the enemy’s rear through an unused gas pipeline near the Russian town of Sudzha, Kursk Oblast, which has been occupied by Ukraine since August 2024. Until 1 January 2025, these pipes were used to supply gas from Russia through Ukraine into the EU. After Ukraine halted the transit of gas, the pipes have remained unused.

Alaudinov emphasised that Akhmat fighters played a decisive role in this operation, claiming that it demonstrated a high level of training and tactical skill.

‘I am sure that Operation Pipe will be written in golden letters in the history of the special military operation [Russia’s term for its full-scale war against Ukraine], children will be told about it in schools, films will be made, books will be written’, Khinshtein noted in turn.

At the same time, in the course of preparations for the operation, an incident arose in connection with a request for the supply of oxygen cylinders. On 1 March, a fighter with the call sign ‘Moses’ requested assistance directly from the Kursk Oblast administration, bypassing the established procedure of submitting requests through the command. Khinshtein explained that such a request could not be fulfilled without formalisation and accurate data about the unit, stressing the need to follow the established procedure to ensure support for the soldiers.

Alaudinov, in turn, noted that ‘Moses’ did not have the authority to address the governor directly, and emphasised that there is an established interaction between the command of Akhmat and the leadership of the Kursk region, which allows for prompt resolution of arising issues. He also expressed his intention to conduct proceedings on the incident.

On Tuesday morning, the state-run television network RT published footage of a Russian soldier allegedly at the entrance to Sudzha.

A little earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the Russian Armed Forces had regained control of 12 settlements in Kursk Oblast — the settlements of Agronom, Bogdanovka, Bondarevka, Dmitriukov, Zazulevka, Ivashkovsky, Kolmakov, Kubatkin, Martynovka, Mikhailovka, Pravda, and Yuzhny.

Over the weekend, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry announced its forces had withdrawn from a number of other settlements — Viktorovka, Mykolaivka, Staraya Sorochyna, Lebedevka, Loknya and Malaya Loknya, Cherkasy Porechny, and Kositsa.

In turn, the Ukrainian General Staff released purported footage of the clashes on 8 March, claiming that Ukrainian troops had repelled an attack by Russian sabotage and assault groups that were using the gas pipeline.

‘Enemy losses in the Sudzha area are very high’, the General Staff said.

Then, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed on 10 March that Ukrainian units are not currently under threat of encirclement in Kursk Oblast, but there have been no official comments from Ukraine since Russia said it had recaptured the 12 settlements on 11 March.

The intensified fighting in Kursk Oblast is taking place against the backdrop of renewed diplomatic efforts to find an end to Russia’s full-scale war, with Ukraine and the US  holding talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on finding a ‘path to peace’.

Chechen Akhmat commander calls for mobilisation of 2 million soldiers for possible clash with EU

Apti Alaudinov recorded the video in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s appeal.

OC MediaElizaveta Chukharova