Russia and Ukraine trade claims over control of strategic Donetsk city Kostiantynivka
Moscow says its forces have fully captured the eastern Ukrainian city, a key defensive hub, but Kyiv insists its troops still hold positions and are conducting counter-sabotage operations.
Conflicting claims
Russia's military leadership told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that its forces had taken full control of Kostiantynivka, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, reported the capture during Putin's visit to a command post. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed to journalists that "the city is now fully under our control."
The troops of the group have liberated the city of Kostiantynivka, one of the main defensive hubs of the enemy within the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka fortified area.
Ukraine immediately rejected the claim. President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X that it was "just another Russian lie," and the General Staff called it false. Army spokesman Andriy Kovaliov acknowledged a "difficult situation" but insisted Ukrainian soldiers were holding their positions and conducting counter-sabotage operations against small Russian infantry groups that had infiltrated the city.
That is of course not true. It is just another Russian lie.
The situation is difficult but it is under the control of the Ukrainian defence forces.
Strategic crossroads
Kostiantynivka, a pre-war city of about 78,000 people, sits on the road to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the last major urban centres in Donbass still under Ukrainian control. It forms the southern anchor of a fortified line that has slowed Russia's westward advance. Moscow has sought to break through this defensive belt for months, and the battle for the city has been the main Russian effort on a front stretching over 1,000 kilometres.
On the ground
Fighting has been intense since late 2025, when Russian troops first began infiltrating the city. According to Kovaliov, small infantry groups of one to three soldiers have managed to penetrate deep into Ukrainian formations, prompting ongoing counter-sabotage missions. The Ukrainian General Staff's morning report noted that combat was continuing in Kostiantynivka and in nearby villages even closer to Russian lines, such as Ivanopillia. Independent verification of the battlefield situation remains impossible.
- Russian forces begin infiltrating Kostiantynivka
- General Gerasimov reports capture to Putin; Peskov announces full control
- Ukraine denies capture, says fighting continues and counter-sabotage operations underway
Wider campaign
Alongside the Kostiantynivka claim, Peskov asserted that Russian forces now control the entirety of the neighbouring Luhansk region, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbass. If confirmed, that would mark a milestone in Moscow's stated goal of seizing the entire Donbass. However, Ukraine has not commented on that claim, and the fog of war makes all such declarations provisional.
