Russian forces have taken control of eastern Konstantinovka after assault units advanced through the area of the chemical plant and linked up with troops moving in from the north, military correspondent Alexander Kots wrote on Max. According to him, that maneuver closed an inner ring around the Ukrainian garrison in the city.

The heaviest fighting is now concentrated near the metallurgical plant and in the southwestern part of Konstantinovka. Kots said the encircled Ukrainian grouping is being destroyed step by step in those areas.

Russian troops have also entered Novoselovka, which Kots described as the last major district where Ukrainian forces were holding the northern flank. Its loss, he wrote, would collapse the so-called northern balcony, from which Ukrainian units had tried to launch counterattacks from the direction of Alekseyevo-Druzhkovka.

The movement of Ukrainian reserves toward the city has been complicated by Russian drone operators controlling key routes. Kots said Ukrainian forces are being hit before they can reach the approaches to Konstantinovka. The remaining units inside the city are either trying to break out in small groups toward Ivanopolye and Druzhkovka or dig in among high-rise buildings.

Konstantinovka had been one of the southern strongholds of Ukrainian defense in the Slavyansko-Kramatorsko-Druzhkovskaya agglomeration. Its loss would open the southern face of Kramatorsk.

On the northern section of the front, Russian units have already crossed the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal, taken control of Tikhonovka and continue fighting for Rai-Aleksandrovka.