Putin hails claimed capture of strategic Donetsk city Kostyantynivka

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had celebrated the claimed capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region by Russian troops.

Peskov quoted Putin as saying that the industrial city had been captured at great cost to the Ukrainian defenders.

Ukraine did not initially comment on the claims. Ukrainian military officials recently acknowledged a difficult situation in the already heavily destroyed city.

In its situation report on Friday evening, the Ukrainian General Staff simply referred to heavy fighting around Kostyantynivka.

The capture of Kostyantynivka would move Putin closer to his goal of bringing the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine – primarily focused on the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk – entirely under Russian administration. Of the larger towns in the Donetsk region, only Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka would then remain under Ukrainian control.