The eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka is likely to fall to Russia in the coming weeks, but Russian forces will struggle to advance much farther into the Donbas. As a result, Russia will lean harder on an aerial bombardment campaign that is unlikely to break Kyiv's resolve but will make this winter the war's harshest yet. On July 17, Donetsk police spokesperson Pavlo Dyachenko said Kostiantynivka, a key southernmost city and a supply hub in the province's Slovyansk-Kramatorsk fortress belt and now largely emptied of civilians, was so tightly encircled by Russian forces that remaining residents could no longer evacuate by vehicle and had been forced to flee on foot. Russian assault troops have reportedly broken into the western, southeastern and eastern districts of the city, while Ukrainian units continue to hold the northwest and center. As Russian forces press their slow and costly ground offensive across the Donbas, Ukraine's...
