Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Russia has carried out more than 2100 aerial attacks on Ukraine over the past week as his military reports that Russia tried to retake a town by sending soldiers through a gas pipeline with a 1.4 metre diameter.
In a social media post on Sunday, Zelenskiy reported that Russian forces deployed 1200 guided aerial bombs, nearly 870 attack drones, and more than 80 missiles of various types.
He also highlighted that many Russian weapons rely on foreign-made components.
"Every Shahed drone and aerial bomb Russia uses contains components supplied in circumvention of sanctions. These weapons include more than 82,000 foreign components," Zelenskiy wrote, urging allies to tighten and enforce existing trade restrictions.
While the overall number of attacks dropped slightly from the previous week's 2300, the number of missile strikes quadrupled by Zelenskiy's count.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's military authorities said Russian soldiers attempted to retake the Ukrainian-held town of Sudzha in Russia's western Kursk region by sending soldiers through a gas pipeline.
The effort was "discovered in time", by an air reconnaissance team and repelled with missiles, artillery and drones, Ukraine's general staff said late on Saturday.
The claim could not be independently verified. Russian military blogs had earlier reported the attempted assault on Sudzha.
The pipeline used was reportedly part of a system that supplied Russian gas to Europe until early this year.
Last northern summer, Ukrainian forces seized parts of the Kursk region in a surprise counterattack. In recent months, however, heavy fighting has pushed them back.
Ukrainian troops in the region are reportedly facing further difficulties, possibly due to the US halting intelligence-sharing, including satellite imagery.
Zelenskiy has called the Kursk offensive an important bargaining chip in potential negotiations with Moscow.
The Russian encroachment through the gas pipeline is part of an offensive to eject Ukrainian soldiers from the western Russian region of Kursk, pro-Russian war bloggers say.
The ruse was among moves aimed at cutting off thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in the region ahead of Ukrainian talks with the US on a possible peace deal to end the war.
Ukrainian troops seized about 1300sq/km of Russia's Kursk region in August in what Ukraine said was an attempt to gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations and to force Russia to shift forces from eastern Ukraine.
Russia has been pressing its push to regain control of the region with some success in recent days.
Open source maps on Friday showed Ukraine's contingent in Kursk nearly surrounded after rapid Russian advances.
"The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost closed," former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Telegram.
"The offensive continues."
Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born pro-Russian military blogger, said Russian special forces crept nearly 16km along the inside of the 1.5 metre wide gas pipeline and spent several days in the pipe before surprising Ukrainian forces from the rear near Sudzha.
Pro-Russian war blogger Two Majors said a major battle was under way for Sudzha and that Russian forces had surprised Ukrainian soldiers by entering the area via a major gas pipeline.
Russian advances in 2024 and US President Donald Trump's upending of US policy on Ukraine and Russia have raised fears among European leaders that Ukraine will lose the war and that Trump is turning his back on the continent.
The US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine this month after a meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy on February 28 descended into acrimony in front of the world's media.
In its daily update on the situation in Kursk, Russia's defence ministry said its forces had retaken the village of Lebedevka, as well as seizing Novenke, a hamlet across the border in Ukraine's neighbouring Sumy region.
Russian Telegram channels showed pictures of special forces in gas masks and lights, some using colourful colloquial Russian curses, as they made their way along the inside of what looked like a large pipe.
Owing to battlefield reporting restrictions on both sides, Reuters was unable to verify the reports.
with dpa
