LUGANSK, July 13. /TASS/. Last week, units of the Ukrainian armed forces attempted a counterattack near Konstantinovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), but Russian troops repelled all enemy attacks, military expert Andrey Marochko reported.

According to him, Kiev suffered losses and retreated from the city.

"Counterattacks by Ukrainian armed forces near Konstantinovka were unsuccessful [during the past week]: all attacks on our positions were repelled, Ukrainian assault forces, having suffered losses, retreated from the city," he wrote on his VKontakte page.

Marochko added that the Ukrainian army’s defensive line is collapsing in the Kharkov Region.

On July 3, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov announced that the Russian Armed Forces had completely liberated Konstantinovka. Russian President Vladimir Putin also noted that the liberation of Konstantinovka is the first, but very important, step in the destruction of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk fortified area.