Russian President Vladimir Putin put on a military uniform Friday to thank his troops for seizing Kostyantynivka. By Saturday, Ukrainian soldiers were still fighting inside the city. This is how the war in Ukraine has worked for years now.
Moscow announces a victory. Kyiv denies it.
The truth sits somewhere in the smoke. Kostyantynivka held about 78,000 people before the war. It sits in the eastern Donetsk region, one of the final barriers on the road to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Those are the big prizes. The Kremlin has wanted them for months, years.
Capturing Kostyantynivka would open the path. Ukrainian army spokesman Andriy Kovalyov told AFP the city remains under Ukrainian control. He admitted small groups of Russian troops have infiltrated.
Fighting continues. President Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin’s announcement a lie. He offered a challenge: if the city is truly Russian, meet me there and negotiate an end to the war.
Moscow’s defence ministry pushed back. It said Russian troops hold the city from its southern to northern outskirts.
Both sides cannot be right. But both sides can be partly right. The pattern is familiar.
Russian forces send in small groups of soldiers to infiltrate and secure positions. They used this method to capture Pokrovsk in late 2025.
Announce victory first. Consolidate later. The question is whether the infantry can hold what the propaganda claims.
This matters beyond one city. Kostyantynivka is a stronghold. Lose it, and Ukrainian defensive lines in the Donbas weaken.
The Kremlin’s ultimate goal in the region is Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Those cities have held since 2014.
If Kostyantynivka falls, the road to them gets shorter. Russia also said Ukrainian drones struck St Petersburg, its second-largest city. That claim landed the same day as the Kostyantynivka announcement.
Two messages at once: we are advancing, and we are under attack. War propaganda rarely comes in one color.
The duelling claims are not new. Both sides have lied. Both sides have told the truth when it suited them.
Reporters on the ground cannot always verify who holds what. Front lines shift. Small groups of soldiers move through alleys and basements.
One street might be Ukrainian. The next might be Russian.
A city can be contested without being captured. Kovalyov said the situation remains difficult. That is the honest part of his statement.
Infiltration is not the same as control. But infiltration is how control starts.
Small groups enter. They dig in. They call for reinforcements.
The defending army has to root them out building by building. That takes time. That takes men.
That takes shells Ukraine does not always have. Putin thanked his troops in uniform.
The image was deliberate. A wartime leader thanking soldiers for a victory. Even if the victory is not complete, the message is sent.
To the Russian public, to the soldiers, to the world: we are winning. Zelensky offered a meeting.
He knows Putin will not take it. The offer was for the record. It was to show the world that Ukraine wants diplomacy while Russia wants land.
Kostyantynivka may fall. It may hold. What matters is the pattern.
Russia announces. Ukraine denies.
The fighting continues. The truth emerges slowly, if at all. This is the war in the Donbas.
It has been this way for a decade. It will be this way until one side breaks.
