The Russian Air Force Busted A Dam In Kostiantynivka. It Didn't Save The Assault Troops.
A Ukrainian counterattack foiled the Russians' soggy plan.
Impatient to capture Kostiantynivka, a key Ukrainian strongpoint in the east, the Russians tried flooding it
Bombing a reservoir west of the city, the Russians impeded Ukrainian reinforcements in late February
But the Russians had their own problems as their communications collapsed
Kostiantynivka holds, but tenuously
On Feb. 24, the Russian air force lobbed a 3-ton guided bomb at the earthen dam across the Khrushchove Reservoir just west of the fortress city of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
It was a key supporting effort for a Russian assault on the western edge of Kostiantynivka, one of the few remaining urban strongpoints standing between the Russian Center Group of Forces and the twin free cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, 20 km to the north.
For a few days, it may have seemed like the Russians were poised for a major advance into Kostiantynivka. But Ukrainian forces counterattacked and pushed the Russians back.
Kostiantynivka holds. But for how long?
For much of 2025, all eyes were on the Kostiantynivka and the cities of Myrnohrad and Pokrovsk to the west. The Russians steadily advanced toward Myrnohrad and Pokrovsk and, under the cover of a thick winter fog in early November, finally marched into Pokrovsk. A few weeks later, the Russians controlled most of both cities. The Ukrainians’ urban defenses south of Kramatorsk were on the verge of fully shattering.
But the garrison in Kostiantynivka fought on even as the Russians captured key villages just south of the city. In mid-February, the Russians organized a simultaneous attack on Kostiantynivka from the ground and from the air.
