Russia declared complete control of the Donetsk fortress belt gateway

“The important news is that Konstantinovka has fallen. The city is now completely under our control,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the evening of July 3.

Video later released by the Russian Ministry of Defense showed soldiers raising flags in many areas of the city.

On the same day, President Vladimir Putin visited the logistics base under the Coalition Forces, the command body of all special operations in Ukraine, and met with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army Valery Gerasimov. He thanked the Russian soldiers and affirmed that controlling Konstantinovka had “great strategic significance”.

“This is the first, very important step in the effort to defeat the Ukrainian army units holding the Slavyansk – Kramatorsk – Konstantinovka urban axis. The enemy has built an extensive network of bases, turning the cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka and Konstantinovka into a fortified belt,” he said.

General Anton Grunis, commander of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of Russia’s Southern Army, said Russian units advanced from many directions, dividing the Ukrainian defense force into many single resistance pockets and neutralizing each target.

“We are conducting an operation to hunt down enemy soldiers hiding in buildings, cellars and ruins in Konstantinovka,” he said.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the information.

Radio BBC On June 22, Ukrainian soldiers quoted saying that the entire city of Konstantinovka had become a “gray zone”, a term for an area where fighting is occurring and no side has complete control. Some Ukrainian commanders in Konstantinovka admitted that Russian forces had penetrated so deeply that they “could not be repelled”, and that defensive units were at risk of losing the city.

“They have penetrated areas behind us. Pushing them back is an extremely difficult effort in an urban environment,” said a Ukrainian drone pilot in the city, adding that the situation had become a “serious crisis”.

Konstantinovka has an area of ​​more than 66 square kilometers and was once an important iron, steel, zinc and glass production center during the Soviet era. Before the outbreak of hostilities, the city’s population was about 70,000 people.

The city was initially a logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut and Chasov Yar, municipalities that Russia took full control of in May 2025 and August 2025. Konstantinovka is also the gateway to the urban chain that forms Ukraine’s “fortress belt” in Donetsk oblast.

This belt is about 50 km long, including the cities of Konstantinovka, Druzhkovka, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. This is Ukraine’s most solid defense line in Donetsk province, with a system of trenches, anti-tank obstacles and dense barbed wire reinforced over the past 10 years, creating a great challenge for attacks conducted by Russia.

If Konstantinovka falls, almost all remaining urban areas will be within range of drone and artillery attacks, helping Russia get closer to its goal of controlling the entire Donetsk province.