Russian troops use tunnels to infiltrate the rear of the Ukrainian army. How common is this tactic and how dangerous is it?
The Russian military in Ukraine boasts a network of underground tunnels for stealthily penetrating the defense line of the Ukrainian armed forces and striking from the rear. This tactic has been used in many wars. Are the Ukrainian units ready for these actions of the enemy and how could they counter them?
How the tunnels affect the situation on the front
At the end of June, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Russian troops had managed to capture a "major fortification" of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donetsk region using an underground tunnel over three kilometers long. Moscow said that ammunition, weapons and foodstuffs were delivered through it. Russian military correspondents released footage of this underground passage. According to their data, a tunnel with a width of 90 cm and a height of half a meter was dug by hand under the concrete bunkers and minefields.
Ukraine has not commented on these statements. According to Ukrainian military journalist Andriy Tsaplienko, the tunnel has lost its meaning after its one-time use. He also says that the Russian troops lost entire units in the area.
The Russians are not using underground passages for the first time: there was such a case last year during the fighting for Avdeevka, but without digging a special tunnel – part of an abandoned underground pipeline was used. Ukrainian military experts point out that through it the Ukrainian army in the Avdeevka region was completely surrounded by the enemy – thus a part of the defenders perished, and the other part was captured.
At the same time, on the border between Chernigov and Sumy regions, where there are large forest massifs, marshy areas, rivers, reservoirs and groundwater, the Russian troops did not have the opportunity to carry out such actions. "Digging an underground passage is a complex engineering task, for the implementation of which a number of factors must be present, such as a certain level of groundwater and a certain condition of the soil. Without them, the enemy's options for choosing areas for excavation work are limited," the Ukrainian armed forces note.
Underpasses are not a new military tactic
Russia has very solid engineering troops, says Ukrainian reserve colonel Serhiy Grabskyi. "They have algorithms worked out on how to take the excavated earth out and spread it around to create camouflage. When removing the earth, due to the difference in temperatures, steam may form, which will be noticed. That's why the dirt must be loaded onto trucks and taken away," Grabsky explains to DV. The tunnels are dug manually, as using a combine harvester would make too much noise in the battle area.
The tunneling tactic is not a Russian invention – it has been used for more than a hundred years – since the time of the First World War, and the Americans have encountered tunnels in the Vietnam War as well. Underground passages in the Russian-Ukrainian war were also used before the full-scale invasion. Back in 2016, the Ukrainian military said that in the village of Shirokino, sabotage groups and snipers penetrated through underground passages. Underground communications were actively used by both sides during the defense of the Donetsk airport in 2014-2015.
Today, the Ukrainian army does not use tunnels, notes Sekach. "The Russians are digging because they want to advance, suffering heavy losses. If our situation was similar – "If there were a lot of people but they couldn't move because of the solid defenses, we would probably use that tactic too," he explains. The military is of the opinion that the effectiveness of the use of underground tunnels is doubtful, because this military trick will not be decisive for the course of the war or the situation on the front. "This can improve things on a 300 meter, kilometer maximum stretch of the front – because the next line of defense starts very close," Sekach says.
How can underground tunnels be countered
It is not possible to uncover all the tunnels and mine the approaches to them, Grabsky notes. "Special tunnel battalions should not be created. The tunnels of the Russians are an episodic phenomenon. These are non-standard methods that are by definition very limited."
The Ukrainian General Staff refuses to explain what methods they use in the fight against this tactic of Russia, but assures that "the entire complex of measures is being implemented for the timely detection and neutralization of attempts to push underground communications by the Russian occupying forces troops".