Russia has effectively taken almost all of Luhansk and, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on April 12, roughly 18% of Donetsk remains outside Russian control. The Russian offensive is now concentrated on Kostiantynivka; if captured, it could open a direct path toward the last major regional cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
A Ukrainian commander known as Lys (Fox) told DW that fighting is continuing on Kostiantynivka’s outskirts. He described Russian units slipping out of nearby forests under fog, probing the front for weak points. “After the current series of attacks, they will likely select a specific section of the front and put targeted pressure on it. That has been their standard tactic since last year,” he said.
Lys called Kostiantynivka “a thorn in the side” of the Russian advance: as long as defenders hold there, broader progress is limited. The urban zone formed by Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk is largely contiguous, so any breakthrough at Kostiantynivka would be hard to stop and could put the other cities at greater risk.
Diplomatically, Russian negotiators have pushed for Ukrainian withdrawal from the whole Donbas; Kyiv has rejected such demands. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that ceding ground would create launch pads for further attacks and noted the region’s defensive works. Even amid the fighting, he said, some 200,000 people still live in the area.
Frontline commanders insist withdrawal is not an option. “It’s out of the question” to give up territory for which so many have died, said Ruslan, a mortar commander defending approaches to Kostiantynivka. Eduard, a battalion chief of staff, warned: “If we just give it up like that, there will soon be nothing left of the Donetsk region. If Kostiantynivka falls, Kramatorsk is the next target.”
Civilians face a grim, shifting reality. Kostiantynivka once held about 70,000 residents; now evacuation is possible only on foot along a road covered by a damaged anti-drone net. A company commander, who asked not to be named, said he found dead civilians in houses along the route and could not understand why some people stayed.
In nearby Druzhkivka, many municipal workers still go to their jobs despite the danger. Locals describe daily fear: “Life in the city is scary,” said Ninel. An older man, Vitaliy, said he has no plans to leave: “But where else am I supposed to go? I don’t have long left to live anyway.”
Kramatorsk, not directly on the immediate front line, has nonetheless suffered growing destruction. On March 29 aerial bombs struck residential areas and killed three people, including a 13-year-old boy. Residents calmly began clearing rubble. Olena, whose window had been blown out, said they would leave if curfews tightened: “That’s how it was in Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka and then in Druzhkivka. We realize that it will happen to us too.”
Anti-drone protection nets, already common near the front, have been extended over roads on the outskirts of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Some neighborhoods in Sloviansk are now within range of Russian first-person-view drones, and many children have been evacuated. Yet parts of the city remain active, with cafes open and people on the streets. “If I had the money, I would leave. It’s hard to watch all this happen,” said Iryna, an elderly resident. “If we were to actually cede this part of the Donbas, it would save many lives — both soldiers and civilians. But imagine giving up this territory. It’s part of Ukraine, after all.”
Sloviansk has been struck repeatedly; a central hotel burned after a Shahed drone attack. Vladyslav Samusenko, who survived while sleeping in that hotel, now helps organize evacuations. Before the war he ran a nonprofit for orphans; since the invasion he has been walking into danger to move people out. On March 24 he walked about eight kilometers to Kostiantynivka to evacuate an elderly couple and described finding many bodies in yards and streets: “You can smell them when you walk past a house.”
Samusenko said mostly retirees remain in the cities, while some young men stay for fear of being drafted. “We have too few fighters. Our soldiers are tired, and there are no replacements,” he said. He added that he will keep evacuating civilians as long as people ask for his help.
This article was originally written in Ukrainian.