Putin loses face as Russian advance near Kostiantynivka implodes

The battle for Kostiantynivka is increasingly being shaped not by battlefield momentum, but by the gap between reality and what Russian commanders claim is happening at the front. As Moscow pushes for visible progress in Donbas, pressure to report success has begun to distort operational decision-making at every level. In this environment, narrative has started to drive strategy rather than the other way around, creating dangerous assumptions about control, security, and readiness. Ukraine, meanwhile, benefits from a defensive posture that rewards patience, verification, and the exploitation of enemy overconfidence. The stakes are especially high because Kostiantynivka sits at the center of Russia’s broader ambition to present the fall of Donbas as inevitable. When false success replaces real consolidation, the risk is not gradual failure, but sudden operational collapse.

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