Kiev lost some 13,500 troops in its failed attempt to defend Konstaninovka, Moscow’s operations chief has said.
Kostantinovka was Ukraine’s “most fortified” stronghold, guarded by some 15,500 troops, most of whom have been eliminated during the Russian operation to capture the city, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy has said.
During a briefing on Saturday, Rudskoy, who is the head of operations at the Russian General Staff, said that throughout several weeks of intense fighting for the strategic city, the Ukrainian military lost around 13,500 troops, 14 tanks, 283 armored fighting vehicles, 1,400 cars, 200 field artillery guns and eight multiple rocket launch systems.
Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov briefed President Vladimir Putin about the liberation of Konstantinovka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic when the commander-in-chief visited an auxiliary command post on Friday.
Why is Konstantinovka important?
The general described Konstantinovka as “a major industrial and logistics hub, which is the key to the last remaining stronghold of the Kiev regime in Donbass – the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration.”
It had a population of some 78,000 before the escalation between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, and was a key center of glass-making and metallurgy, he added.
“Most fortified” link in Ukraine’s defense belt
The government in Kiev, which understood the strategic value of Konstantinovka, had started creating an extensive defense system in and around the city back in 2014, Rudskoy noted.
“Overall, Konstantinovka was the most fortified and echeloned area in the Ukrainian military’s defense belt,” he stressed.
The fortifications around the city consisted of two defense lines, which included more than 150 km of trenches and anti-tank ditches with three rows of artificial obstacles and mine fields, according to the general.
Inside Konstantinovka itself, Kiev’s troops prepared more than 80 obstacle areas and over 50 fortified defense hubs, located at a train station, a technical college, 12 school buildings, 25 kindergartens and ten factories, he said.
We can thank the Russians for fighting the Western banksters not once but twice. Brave people. Well done. Lot’s of us in the West are behind you.