Ukraine accuses Russian troops of using civilians as “human shields” to retreat from Kupiansk via gas pipeline

Nine civilians from the Kupiansk community — including children, elderly people and a person on crutches — were led through the village of Holubivka to the entrance of the Shebelynka–Ostrohozhsk gas pipeline and then forced inside it, The Kyiv Independent reports, citing the statement of the 2nd “Khartiia” Corps of Ukraine’s National Guard.

According to Khartiia, drone footage recorded on September 27 shows that military-aged men in civilian clothes were also walking with the civilians — likely Russian soldiers who had removed their uniforms during the retreat and were using the civilians as cover to deter Ukrainian fire.

The group was to travel over 10 kilometers in darkness through the pipeline to an exit in a forested area, potentially toward Russian-occupied territory. Khartiia says it deliberately did not open fire to avoid endangering the civilians, that “every action in this video constitutes a war crime” and that the material will be handed to authorities for investigation as a possible war crime.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the incident and said the evidence was passed to investigators, while stressing that the identification of the men as Russian soldiers remains a Khartiia assessment, not independently verified, and that there is still no public testimony from the civilians themselves.

The incident involves the same gas pipeline that Russian troops had previously used to infiltrate Kupiansk, a city in the Kharkiv region that remains a hot front line.