Die zerstörte Festungsstadt Putin setzt alles aufs Spiel
Von theipaper
Die zerstörte Festungsstadt Putin setzt alles aufs Spiel
Von theipaper
12 Kommentare
As the world watches [**Ukrainian drones**](https://inews.co.uk/news/russians-told-to-shelter-indoors-as-ukraine-launches-unprecedented-drone-attack-4462056?srsltid=AfmBOooiJXeLaPZjmubw1vy7L6o1KUaoZte6G3kiMnaYTPgaoWEe36aC&ico=in-line_link) hurtle into Moscow and St Petersburg, [**Vladimir Putin**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/vladimir-putin?srsltid=AfmBOoqEausnX0PGfGEOEhVRmq-ElqzkSLCvNDVOV_LPpsn4d4WNnA32&ico=in-line_link) is laser-focused on another city.
Moscow’s forces are pushing to seize Kostiantynivka, a pillar in Ukraine’s “fortress belt” in the east that Putin sees as the main obstacle to his goal of conquering the [**Donetsk region**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/donetsk-oblast?srsltid=AfmBOorhkCjy9Fm5a-PNryTnP8enGcPMkI606GxixnHGAw5VPhxFzGB9&ico=in-line_link), and wider [**Donbas**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/donbas?srsltid=AfmBOoreJiFI4U7y7vuSKYnAbF8Gh2dY_RetJjg28XxnHsMbVCfG1QKU&ico=in-line_link) around it.
The city has emerged as a central target for the [**Kremlin**](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/putin-using-word-war-scare-europe-ukraine-4629554?ico=in-line_link) just as Donald Trump’s attention returns to [**Ukraine**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/ukraine?ico=in-line_link), with the Putin claiming in a call with the US President that [**Russia**](https://inews.co.uk/topic/russia?ico=in-line_link) already holds it.
The once thriving industrial city of 66,000 is now a wasteland of blackened, gaping buildings, cratered roads littered with burnt-out vehicles and cobwebs of nets hung over highways to protect from drones buzzing overhead.
Fighting on the city’s outskirts began in October, but Moscow is now sending in thousands more troops and kicking off another round of urban warfare that recalls the 2022-23 [**battle of Bakhmut**](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/bakhmut-before-after-satellite-images-russia-ukraine-war-2355818?srsltid=AfmBOoqXZ-OKKVh5CpEDy8BvsMemZy9bjG_aP1e1yq0FkNptS0VgbOi_&ico=in-line_link), dubbed the bloodiest since the Second World War.
**Why Putin says Kostiantynivka is the ‘key’**
Russia has focused this year’s offensive on Ukraine’s fortress belt, which runs through Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region. Capturing Kostiantynivka would open up the route to these strategic cities.
Putin last week underlined this point, claiming Kostiantynivka was of “major strategic importance” and “the key to liberating the entire territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic”, as Moscow calls the region.
The cities are the cornerstone of Ukraine’s defence in the east, and it has poured money into building up their defences since 2014, [**when Russia launched operations in the Donbas region**](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russia-ukraine-why-fighting-history-war-explained-timeline-conflict-1461394?srsltid=AfmBOopfwJUAXXCUDA7uCklCyYkJhRtxyec-JixUPQnL-icPUo8HQ9wo&ico=in-line_link). The belt’s elevation and urban build-up is advantageous to Ukraine, forcing Russia to deploy a huge number of troops to progress.
“This is probably the hottest point in the whole front line,” said Vladyslav Urubkov, military division lead at Ukraine’s Come Back Alive Foundation and a former Ukrainian army officer, who recently visited the front line.
He told *The i Paper* that Russia taking Kostiantynivka would put Sloviansk and Kramatorsk at risk. “These are really large cities and the landscape is an advantage for us because of the heights near Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which really matters during those combat actions,” he said. “And of course they mean a lot for us, because around 100,000 people still live there, or even more in that part of Donetsk region.”
For Putin, taking Donetsk is “symbolic”, says Urubkov. In 2022, Donetsk was among four regions that Moscow claimed to have [**annexed**](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/annex-what-mean-war-meaning-annexation-putin-plans-russia-ukraine-explained-1884315?srsltid=AfmBOopKfTc6hPhnpOOtFhcZCPKcBmSmgqRR9Go6Z3k9jpY-GSjekjM_&ico=in-line_link), despite not controlling the whole of them. Having captured most of the Luhansk region, which forms the other half of the Donbas, taking Donetsk would fulfil a war aim.
“Donetsk region is the number one political goal for Russia, and they will, as we see, lay everything on the table to reach that goal, despite everything, despite all the losses,” Urubkov told *The i Paper*.
ugh more clickbait journalism
Avdiivka 2.0. and again it’s going to fall because big pu has 10 billion powerful sympathisers on the other side of the Atlantic stalling or outright denying aid
Now behind every destroyed city is tragedy, countless lives being destroyed. However, to me, it feels like Russia puts way too much resources into seemingly unimportant cities. As if Ukraine has created plenty of honeypots, where they can drain Russia’s resources.
Kostyantynivka has almost fallen. The only part of the City where Russian troops haven’t been geolocated yet, is in the North-western outskirts of the city. Sabotage and reconnaissance groups have been already spotted in Olekssievo-Druzhkivka, Osykove and one time even in the city of Druzhkivka itself. The infiltrations into these three localities have been repelled tho. The Ukrainian troops stationed between Izhevka and Chasiv Yar risk operational encirclement, but they hold the lines pretty well right now. We will likely see 4 directions of advance. 1.) Via Kazenyi Torez river directly towards Druzhkivka. 2.) Via the fields of Mykolaipillya which can end with the flanking of Olekssievo-Druzhkivka. 3.) Via Olekssievo-Druzhkivka towards Druzhkivka, which will likely result in long heavy clashes over the settlement. 4.) Clear the Chasiv Yar pocket and advance towards Kramatorsk, enter the city, and attack Druzhkivka from the north.
If i recall right theres 3 fortress cities pre prepared right behind them so even if it falls it doesnt help russia much more.
Shit they cant afford to rebuild what they destroy to take anyway
According to X military specialist from my country (Poland) it’s just a matter of time when Russia will take those fortress city’s from Ukraine. Ukraine tactic is dron defensive + strikes on strategic recorces and Moscow. That’s about it. Ukrainian don’t have the manpower to do anything else at this moment. They try to save the biggest Ukraine strategic recorce that are humans.
Russia is not gambling. They have the raw power to take it. It’s just the cost of it.
Many geostrategists say that when Putin get Donieck than Ukraine will try hard to negotiate peace. Question will be just on Putin. Many say that he need to deliver if he want to survive.
For Zalenski is also a good situation, he didn’t negotiate Doniek, he lost it. Much easier to swallow pill.
Than again even if it’s peace than it might be just a short brake in the war. Russian end goal is to destroy Ukraine. As polish former president said. Putin don’t really understand what Ukraine is.
Ukrainespeak translation: The Russian army is about to capture another major town.
This changes nothing on the field. The goal is the optics. To sell, with the help of the useful idiots on the West, the idea that all is lost for Ukraine, and to limit support.
He’s not „gambling everything“, he’s gambling tens of thousands of russian lives for it.
The problem here for old Putin is that Kostiantynivka is the *first* of the fortress cities.
There are 4 of them. They would still need to take Druzhkivka, Slovyansk, and Kramatorsk afterwards.
As long as Ukraine isn’t capable to change its defensive tactics and recapture lost territory, then it is just a matter of time until this city falls too, just like Pokrovsk and Bakhmut. If Ukraine isn’t capable to fully stop the russian advances and retake territory, then putin will continue, even if the russians only advance 1 meter per day and lose thousands of soldiers for it, because putin doesn’t give a shit about the number of losses if it means that they continue to advance.
It is quite exasperating to see that Ukraine hasn’t been able to recapture large parts of its territory for years now, and I seriously begin to suspect that this is a deliberate strategy by zelensky to just let the russians slowly capture it and then negociate peace after that, because he wouldn’t have to cede Donetsk to the russians during negotiations, which would be his political death, and he would just have lost the Donetsk territory on the battlefield, which would be less difficult to swallow by the population.
Even if they destroy the russian logistics in the south and Crimea, it is still completely useless if it doesn’t translate into battlefield gains, because again, putin doesn’t give a shit about his soldiers or his population as long as his army continues to advance.
I really hope that the russian logistics collapse in the south would allow the ukrainians to use it to their advantage and recapture parts of their territory, but so far it seems that none of this is coming anytime soon, and by the time the ukrainian government and army command decide to do something, the russians will have already adapted, and the ukrainians will have lost their window of opportunity. Again.
I remember that a few weeks ago a ukrainian diplomat at the UN was saying to the russians to leave the occupied territories before it’s too late. But too late for what ? There is zero indication that the ukrainians will recapture territory, so in the end, this politician will just look like a moron for saying that. I wish the ukrainian leaders could speak less and act more, because right now, everything they’re saying is just nice words.