Russian Forces Infiltrate Kostiantynivka Amid Intense Bombardments

Russia is increasing pressure on Kostiantynivka. Russian occupiers are being detected in many areas of the city. Although for now they are infiltrating the city mostly one by one, this is becoming a problem.

LIGA.net spoke with military personnel operating in the direction and analysts to understand what is currently happening in Kostiantynivka and its outskirts, and what asymmetric actions Ukraine can take to curb the creeping Russian advance.

What is happening in Kostiantynivka now

Russian military personnel are already being found in various districts of Kostiantynivka, including the city center. These are both lone occupiers who have infiltrated the city and groups controlling individual houses or entrances of apartment buildings. However, there is no entire section under Russian control, said commander of the 19th Army Corps, Brigadier General Oleksandr Bakulin, in a telethon.

The number of Russian troops in the city as of the morning of June 18 was "about 123 military personnel, plus or minus 20–30."

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The situation on the Kostiantynivka direction is indeed hot, because the enemy understands perfectly: Kostiantynivka is the southern start of the Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka agglomeration, which has now become a key target of the Kremlin, Serhiy Khominsky, press officer of the 100th Separate Mechanized Brigade, tells LIGA.net.

"Kostiantynivka is the approach to the Kramatorsk agglomeration," he explains. "So it is absolutely obvious that the enemy has thrown huge forces and resources into capturing the city and is trying to achieve certain success there."

The critical situation currently developing in Kostiantynivka directly affects Chasiv Yar – the flank of Kostiantynivka, adds LIGA.net's head of communications department of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after King Danylo, Ivan Petrychak. There too, they record: the enemy is beginning to crawl in very massive small infantry groups.

"The brigade is now working to counter the enemy, destroy it, but the situation is still very serious and very tense," he says.

One of the key problems remains KABs (guided bombs). The presence of Russian occupiers in Kostiantynivka did not curb the intensity of enemy bombings. "On the contrary, the enemy has increased airstrikes and the use of KABs on the city, destroying, among other things, their own forces they are trying to accumulate in the city. More than once or twice there have been situations where they struck where their own soldiers were."

Increased shelling is also noted in the Chasiv Yar area, says Petrychak. However, in the city itself, it is already difficult to track these destructions – new ruins on old ruins look more or less the same.

"Where there used to be a building, now there is just leveled ground and a pile of bricks, which from a flight height looks like someone spilled popcorn," he describes. "No walls, not even a 'skeleton'. Compared to Chasiv Yar, Bakhmut looks like a completely intact city. Mostly, this destruction was caused by KABs."

Now Russian bombardments have shifted from Chasiv Yar deeper – under fire are Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kostiantynivka. The Russians also use aircraft to hit Ukrainian positions in the fields. "Sometimes KABs hit artillery or just plantations – they launch 3-4 KABs there because the enemy thinks there are some positions there," notes Petrychak.

In addition, artillery shelling and FPV drones are added. The fields around Chasiv Yar, according to Petrychak, are so covered with fiber optics that they look "like someone spread a solid carpet."

In the 100th Separate Mechanized Brigade, they speak of an anomalous increase in the use of Russian UAVs – this applies to aerial reconnaissance, bombers, kamikaze drones, and drones that conduct remote mining of a certain area.

"They have involved an incredible number of crews and aircraft to dominate the air," states Khominsky.

How Russians infiltrate Kostiantynivka

One of the servicemen from the Kostiantynivka direction confirms to LIGA.net that Russians are infiltrating the city from the west.

By "small infantry group" they now most often mean a single Russian infantryman accompanied by a drone. "He is wearing body armor, with a machine gun and three magazines, walking behind a drone that shows him where to go," says Petrychak.

"The other day I spoke with an occupier who was captured by our guys, precisely from the Kostiantynivka direction," he continues. "Previously, those infantrymen walked with a phone and had maps, but this one says: 'I had nothing at all, no map, no phone, I went to assault following a drone.'"

The Russians' calculation is that the Defense Forces will not be able to detect and destroy all these lone occupiers.

According to Khominsky, the actions of those Russians who have already infiltrated the city show that they are well-trained assault troops and reconnaissance personnel. They enter the city to perform specific tasks.

"It is absolutely obvious that these are not 'chmoni' (derogatory term for poorly trained soldiers) or yesterday's recruits," the officer says. "They are trying to cut our logistics, set up ambushes, try to regroup somewhere to assault our position."

According to the brigade's calculations, from May 16 to June 16 inclusive, only in the defense zone of the 100th Separate Mechanized Brigade, the enemy lost 395 occupiers killed and 515 wounded. "If we say that the enemy has now achieved the presence of about 130 fighters in various districts of Kostiantynivka, then during the month in Kostiantynivka alone, killed only by our fighters, they lost 395 – more than three times as many," clarifies Khominsky.

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Asymmetric steps needed. What to expect next

Despite the very difficult situation, the 100th Separate Mechanized Brigade does not agree with assessments indicating that "the Pokrovsk scenario is partially visible" in Kostiantynivka. If it materializes, Druzhkivka and later Kramatorsk will come under direct attack from enemy aviation and artillery.

"If we manage to close those gaps in the defense west of Kostiantynivka through which the enemy is infiltrating the city, it will take seven to ten days to deal with those 130-135 orcs," says Khominsky.

However, as LIGA.net's military expert, founder of the charity organization "Reactive Mail" Pavlo Narozhny, notes, there have been no examples in the Russian-Ukrainian war of maintaining full control over a city that has already begun to be erased by KABs.

KABs are one of the main factors in the creeping Russian advance in Donetsk region, agrees Ivan Kyrychevsky, weapons expert at Defense Express and serviceman of the 413th Regiment of Unmanned Systems "Raid", in a conversation with LIGA.net.

"You can talk as much as you like about modern technologies, but there are no techniques against a plane with pig iron," he says. "Russians can afford carpet bombing of cities in the East, and globally we cannot do anything about it yet. If only because the destroyed infrastructure in front-line regions means that Ukrainian defenders have nowhere to station and work."

At the same time, Russians have not only serial production of KABs but also work on their modification, LIGA.net is told by the chief researcher of the research department of innovative projects, research of enemy weapons and experience of operating weapons and military equipment, Colonel Oleksandr Zaruba.

"The main trend has been the use of the universal planning and correction module (UMPK), which is installed on various types of high-explosive aerial bombs. This allows strikes in some cases up to 120 km, without risking the aircraft entering the zone of Ukrainian air defense," he says. "In addition to high-explosive aerial bombs, together with UMPK, we record the use of cluster bombs."

One of the directions for the development of KABs has also been the creation of a unified inter-service planning munition UMPB, adds Zaruba. This is something between a KAB and a drone. It is an independent aerial munition that has a module with wings, an aviation system, and an engine. Carriers of the UMPB can be Su-34, Su-37, Su-35, Su-24 aircraft, as well as the S-70 "Okhotnik" unmanned aerial vehicle. The range of use is up to 100 kilometers if dropped from an altitude of 12-15 km.

The Defense Forces currently have nothing to effectively counter KABs so that they cease to be a systemic problem, summarizes Kyrychevsky. The only effective means is a combination of the Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighter and the long-range Meteor missile, which Ukraine is promised to receive by the beginning of 2027.

"Until that moment, the only thing that can curb the creeping Russian advance and the development of negative scenarios at the front is asymmetric actions and strategic strikes on Russia, this is also a way to curb the creeping Russian advance," he concludes. "They will allow buying time for the front until the Gripen can go on a serial hunt for Russian Su-34s. We have no options other than to constantly hit Moscow and other regions."

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