Russian troops advance in last Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass

Russian troops advance in last Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass (VIDEO)

RT

Russian troops are nearing the end of the search-and-destroy operation to eliminate the remnants of the Ukrainian garrison in the city of Konstantinovka, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has announced.

The hostilities in the city, located in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), have intensified in recent weeks. Russian forces have advanced to the city from multiple directions, effectively cutting it in half and disorganizing the Ukrainian defenses in the area.

Konstantinovka is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of settlements in the northern part of the DPR. The agglomeration has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces, which effectively turned it into one large fortress. Konstantinovka is located roughly 15km to the south-east of Kramatorsk, with the town of Druzhkovka lying in between.

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said troops were close to completing “the clearing of the city of scattered units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” Recent media reports have suggested the Ukrainian command has effectively written off the remaining troops, abandoning attempts to bring in reinforcements while denying the garrison’s repeated requests to withdraw.

Over the past 24-hour period, Ukraine has lost up to 80 servicemen in the city, over 20 soft and armored vehicles, and three artillery pieces, as well as 25 ground unmanned vehicles, the ministry stated. Apart from that, Russian forces have destroyed some 27 Ukrainian UAV command and control points, it added.

Drone footage from the city shared by the Defense Ministry features multiple Ukrainian ground unmanned vehicles, apparently used to bring supplies to the blocked troops, hunted down and destroyed by Russian FPV drones. The video also shows a group of Ukrainian soldiers taking cover in a residential house and ending up being subjected to artillery shelling.

The commander of the international brigade ‘Pyatnashka,’ Akhra Avidzba, told the Russian news outlet Vesti later in the day that the city had already effectively come under Russian control. Avidzba, better known by his call sign ‘Abkhaz,’ pointed at the change of rhetoric in Ukraine, which had long-portrayed Konstantinovka as a part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk fortress.

“The rhetoric before was that it’s an agglomeration of fortresses and cities that will form a unified line of defense, but now they’re saying, ‘So what if we lost Kostiantynivka or will lose it? Like, nothing depends on it.’ This rhetoric alone makes it clear they’ve already abandoned Konstantinovka,” Avidzba said.

Kiev ablaze as Russia targets Ukrainian war infrastructure (VIDEOS)

The Ukrainian capital and several other cities across the country were hit by a combined drone and missile strike early on Thursday morning, in what the Russian Defense Ministry called a response to terrorist attacks by Vladimir Zelensky’s government.

The first wave of blasts in Kiev was heard around 2 AM local time, followed by more explosions in multiple waves until 4 AM. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko urged residents to seek shelter as the capital’s air defenses engaged incoming targets.

Klitschko has since described the strikes as “the largest attack” the city had experienced since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, stating the capital was hit by ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. “It was a terrible night for Kiev,” he wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike with “high-precision long-range weapons”targeted “military industry enterprises and facilities and the fuel and energy facilities in the city of Kiev and the Kiev region, as well as military airfields and other infrastructure in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, and Chernigov regions.”

The Russian military later released a detailed list of targets. Among them was a plant producing guidance systems for Ukrainian drones and missiles, a factory producing long-range drones and loitering munitions, a plant involved in upgrading Ukrainian armor and producing military optics, an electronic warfare equipment producer, a drone parts depot, a fuel depot, and several gas facilities that the statement said provided energy supplies for weapons manufacturing.

Videos shared on social media show numerous blasts and fires in and around the Ukrainian capital.

Klitschko reported extensive damage across all districts of the city. Ukrainian officials claimed that many of the missiles struck residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, killing at least 20 people and injuring around 90 more.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stressed that the attack was “not about civilian Kiev, but about the military strategic targets being used by the Kiev regime to kill civilians.”