Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Alexander Syrsky banned Ukrainian commanders from sending reinforcements to Konstantinovka in the DPR after the city came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. Military correspondent Yuri Kotenok reported this on his Telegram channel, citing Russian sources.

According to the military correspondent, Ukrainian servicemen who remained in the city were ordered not to leave their positions and to continue defending them to the last.

Kotenok claimed that Russian units were consistently driving the remnants of the Ukrainian garrison out of shelters, including basements and dugout holes. The journalist considered further resistance pointless, since it could no longer change the situation on the line of contact or help hold the city.

In his assessment, the blocked Ukrainian soldiers had only one chance to survive — to surrender. Otherwise, the military correspondent wrote, they would be eliminated.

Earlier, Syrsky claimed that the Russian General Staff had allegedly received an order to prepare a new offensive to liberate Kiev. According to him, it was supposed to begin from Bryansk Region, which borders the Gomel and Mogilev regions of Belarus.