Russia announces control over the city of Konstantinovka in eastern Ukraine

SadaNews - The Kremlin announced late on Friday that the Russian army has taken control of Konstantinovka in eastern Ukraine, a city that serves as a fortified stronghold for Ukrainian forces and is situated on a route leading to the last major cities still under Kiev's control in the Donbass region.

The spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, stated to reporters, "Konstantinovka is fully under our control now. The city is completely under our authority."

Television footage showed President Vladimir Putin in military attire with his general staff, confirming that the control of Konstantinovka holds "great strategic significance."

For his part, Russian military commander Anton Gruniss reported that Russian forces are currently conducting "clearing operations against isolated Ukrainian military personnel attempting to hide in buildings, basements, and debris" in Konstantinovka.

The battle for control of this city, which had a population of about 78,000 before the war, began at the end of 2025 with infiltrations by Russian forces.

It has now become the primary axis of the Russian assault on a front stretching nearly one thousand kilometers.

Konstantinovka is considered one of the last obstacles on the path to the larger cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, which remain under Ukrainian control in Donbass and which the Kremlin seeks to seize.

Furthermore, Peskov noted that Russian forces also now control the entire Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, one of the two regions in the Donbass that Russia aims to fully capture.

Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov clarified that Russian forces are now just 9 kilometers away from Zaporizhzhia, a major city in southern Ukraine that had a population of over 700,000 before the war.

Another military commander indicated that his troops are now located 10 kilometers from the largest city in the Sumy region in the north, which had around 250,000 residents before the war.