KURSK, March 21. /TASS/. Operation Flow, in which Russian fighters traversed a disused gas pipeline to launch a surprise attack behind Ukrainian lines in Sudzha in the Kursk Region, was prepared for about three months, the battalion commander with the call sign Morpekh from the Veterans Separate Air Assault Brigade told TASS on Friday.
"It [the operation] was prepared actually for three months. To understand it, there wasn’t just one exit from the pipe, there were two. The first exit was prepared for the movement of the personnel to the right flank, to Sudzha and the Sumy Region. The second was for the movement to the left flank, to bridges and the industrial zone," the commander said.
About 500 Russian fighters moved through the pipe towards Sudzha. The pipe’s exits to the right and left flanks were made deliberately for the effective distribution of personnel among positions, he elaborated.
"It is impossible to make so many troops get out of one pipe exit only. If we had tried, we would have sustained heavy casualties because they would have been getting out of the pipe slowly," the battalion commander explained.
During Operation Flow, fighters of a combined assault force manned by servicemen of the 11th Guards Separate Air Assault Brigade, the 30th Regiment of the 72nd Motor Rifle Division, the Akhmat commando unit, and volunteers of the Veterans and Vostok V Assault Brigades traveled about 15 km inside the pipeline and surfaced in a surprise attack deep in the Ukrainian army’s defenses near Sudzha in the Kursk Region.
On March 12, Chief of Russia’s General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Army General Valery Gerasimov said that more than 600 fighters had participated in the operation to travel through a disused gas pipeline. He noted that the Veterans and Akhmat formations, the 11th Air Assault Brigade, and the 30th Motor Rifle Regiment had especially distinguished themselves in the operation.
Gerasimov highlighted "heroic actions by the combined assault force" that came as a surprise for the enemy and helped weaken its defenses and develop offensive operations by Russian troops in the Kursk Region.