Russian troops have infiltrated the strategic city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine and are trying to surround it. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC.
Ukrainian soldiers say the entire city has become a 'grey zone', no longer controlled by anyone. "They get into areas behind our backs and in urban conditions it's extremely difficult to push them out," says a Ukrainian drone pilot who prefers to remain anonymous.
Kostyantynivka is a gateway to the rest of the Donbas region. If it falls, Russian forces would be able to push towards Ukraine's last remaining strongholds in the east, the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and move closer to seizing Donbas completely, one of the Kremlin's key objectives in this war.
For months Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine has stalled along the front line, and Ukrainian commanders say they have recaptured more territory this year than they have lost. But in Kostyantynivka, Russian soldiers have advanced from the south and have even been spotted on the city's northern outskirts.
Moscow says its forces are rapidly advancing in the south-western part of Kostyantynivka and that they have encircled Ukrainian military units. Kyiv denies this. Brig Gen Oleksandr Bakulin, commander of Ukraine's 19th Corp which is in charge of units defending the city, insists "the situation remains under control" and "the enemy has no success". However, he acknowledges there are about 130 Russian soldiers still inside the city.
The situation on the ground may not be as critical as Moscow says, but it appears far more serious than Ukrainian officials are ready to publicly admit, a Ukrainian officer from a unit that operates inside Kostyantynivka told the BBC. He too preferred to stay anonymous: "We still have clean-up and assault groups inside the city, but the Russians manage to accumulate more and more soldiers there."
Every building in Kostyantynivka acts as a potential shelter for soldiers to hide, and in the summer months the trees provide extra cover. Russian drone pilots have also focused on destroying Ukrainian drone launch sites.
The Ukrainian drone pilot told the BBC that while his colleagues were targeting Russia's infantry, enemy crews were not: "For such tasks, they use artillery, multiple rocket launchers, military aviation."
He and his comrades have limited numbers and resources, so they are often exhausted and have struggled to expand their operations. "Since we devote little time to searching and targeting enemy pilots, they can freely operate, detect our positions and we are forced to roll back. This is how the frontline moves," he explains.
The Ukrainian officer whose unit is operating in the city maintains the pace of the Russian advance is very slow: "Sometimes they move 100m a day. Sometimes they even crawl to reach the next building."
Russian forces in Kostyantynivka have adopted a similar strategy to that used in the capture of Pokrovsk and other major cities in eastern Ukraine, advancing along the flanks to surround the city and cut off supply routes. In recent days the Russian defence ministry has said it has seized villages to the west of the city.
Such reports have helped divert attention from Ukraine's attacks on oil refineries deep inside Russia and on supply routes to Crimea, and the major fuel shortages they have caused. That appears to explain the Kremlin's decision to surround and seize Kostyantynivka as quickly as possible.