LUGANSK, October 14. /TASS/. Russian troops have pushed into the eastern outskirts of Konstantinovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and are gaining a foothold there, with fierce battles underway, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS on Tuesday.
"Literally last week, a significant success was achieved: we made a push from Predtechino and our troops are actually gaining a foothold on the eastern outskirts of that settlement [Konstantinovka]. The settlement is a very difficult sector and now really fierce battles are underway and the enemy is putting up resistance," the military expert said.
Konstantinovka is a large industrial city with a large industrial zone where the enemy is "deploying its equipment and hiding," which slows down the Russian army’s advance there, Marochko said.
"If we speak about how the advance will proceed there [in Konstantinovka], I can immediately say that it is approximately the same as was the case in Artyomovsk [the Ukrainian name of Bakhmut]. That is, we can recall how much we had to fight for that community. So, Konstantinovka is actually the same. It will even be worse for our army’s advance," the expert said.
Kiev will try to hold on to Konstantinovka as much as possible, he added.
"The enemy understands well that this settlement cannot be abandoned in any case because behind it is the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, which is already the Donbass last frontier. Naturally, they need to hold back the advance of our troops as long as possible," the military expert said.
Marochko told TASS on October 12 that Russian troops had entered Konstantinovka and begun battles on the city’s eastern outskirts.