ISW: Russia’s spring offensive is 16 times slower than last year — and costs 19 times more blood per kilometer
Nineteen times more casualties per square kilometer — and sixteen times less ground taken.
Browsing Tag
Kostiantynivka
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After eight months, Kostiantynivka is falling. Why some Ukrainian commanders would rather fight the open fields behind it
Russia's first strategic win of the year is a ruined city—and Ukraine's drone-centric defense may not miss it the way it once would have.
“A matter of time”: Kostiantynivka now faces slow Pokrovsk-style siege, DeepState says
Russian forces are advancing from several directions and seeking to cut key logistics routes, raising fears for one of Ukraine's last major strongholds in Donetsk Oblast.
Russia tried to surround Lyman. Now its own salient is getting squeezed.
Lyman blocks the northern route to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Ukrainian counterattacks are protecting the city.
ISW: Russia gains ground in Kostiantynivka but Fortress Belt stays out of reach
Russia's strategy of stacking armies on one Donetsk Oblast city is producing slow infiltration, not the operational breakthrough Moscow needs to crack the fortified chain, ISW says.
Russia’s monthly land grab in Ukraine has collapsed from hundreds of km² to 14, OSINT data show
As Ukraine paired a battlefield network linking every drone and sensor with strikes deep behind Russian lines, DeepState's monthly tally for May is the smallest in years of Russia's grinding offensive.
ISW: Russia’s grand territorial ambitions are divorced from battlefield reality
The think tank noted that Russian forces first infiltrated Kostiantynivka in October 2025 and have made no significant tactical gains in six months, even as Peskov restated Moscow's withdrawal demand on four oblasts.
Russia’s T-72AM is a very old tank with a fresh coat of paint. Expect it to stay parked like other tanks.
Aging T-72As were some of the last tanks Russian industry pulled out of storage for service in Ukraine. They're beginning to arrive.
Tanks couldn’t take Chasiv Yar. So Russia’s reaching for the playbook that took Pokrovsk.
Chasiv Yar is one of the last big obstacles to a Russian march on Kramatorsk. Russian plans for getting past Chasiv Yar are becoming clearer.
Russia is pulling strategic reserves to prop up a failing offensive, HUR says — and 20,000 troops is less than one month of its own losses
Moscow's military missed its self-imposed April deadline to seize three Donetsk Oblast cities, now it wants the rest of the region captured by September.
Ukraine holds Hryshyne’s center and northern Pokrovsk outskirts as Russia builds up for its next push, military says
Russian forces failed to consolidate in Hryshyne's center, while Ukraine continued detecting and destroying Russian targets throughout southern Pokrovsk to disrupt a buildup there.
Kholodnyi Yar commander: The drone war is won at the contact line, but it is decided in the depth
Shamil Krutkov says Ukraine's brigades must push drone operations deeper into Russian rear areas, and the key variables are the number and quality of available UAVs as well as enemy positioning.
Russia’s 2026 war plan had two objectives. Ukraine is wrecking both.
With nine months left in 2026, the Kremlin has its sights set on two main objectives in the east and south. Neither is easy.
Russia’s spring offensive has stalled at Ukraine’s Fortress Belt — ISW says it won’t break through in 2026
The 3rd Combined Arms Army, the only Russian force positioned to push directly on Sloviansk, hasn't gained ground in a week after a month of tactically significant advances east of the city.
“The enemy failed”: Russia threw over 600 attacks at Ukraine’s front in 4 days. Ukraine held the line – Syrskyi
Syrskyi says Russian forces lost more than 6,000 troops killed and wounded in the surge – and failed to break through anywhere.
ISW: Russia has likely begun its anticipated spring-summer 2026 offensive against Ukraine’s Fortress Belt in Donetsk Oblast
ISW assessed on 21 March, adding that Russian forces are unlikely to seize the Fortress Belt in 2026 but will likely make some tactical gains at significant cost.
Blowing up a key dam, the Russians marched into Kostiantynivka. But not for long.
Unable to capture Kostiantynivka with a direct assault, the Russians are trying to drown and strangle the city's garrison.
Russian forces massing reserves near Pokrovsk — Ukraine’s East grouping is tracking the pre-offensive buildup
The task force has flagged intensifying airstrikes and fresh troop concentrations as indicators of an imminent Russian escalation.
126 km² in February, 245 in January, some 630 last November — Russia’s gains drop while its attacks hold steady, Deep State says
Assault operations barely slowed, dropping just 4% compared to January, while the Pokrovsk sector absorbed 31% of all attacks.
Russian forces hit Kostiantynivka residential area with phosphorus munitions
Russian forces attacked Kostyantynivka in Donetsk Oblast with phosphorus munitions followed by a FAB-1500 aerial bomb with a 1,500-kilogram warhead, according to Ukraine's 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade.