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Russia's military told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that its forces had captured Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, a city Moscow has long sought to control, as Ukraine's General Staff immediately rejected the claim as "false."
Russia's Defense Ministry posted on Telegram that its forces had "liberated" Kostiantynivka.
Ukraine's General Staff called the announcement "fake."
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia's General Staff, announced the city's capture while briefing Putin at a command post visit.
"The troops of the group have liberated the city of Kostiantynivka, one of the main defensive hubs of the enemy within the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka fortified area," Gerasimov said, according to the Kremlin.
Putin described the capture as strategically significant.
"We all know that this city is a key transport and large industrial center of Donbas," Putin said.
Putin also said Russian forces had captured 133 settlements and taken control of more than 3,000 square kilometers in Donbas and Novorossiya since the start of the year, according to his remarks posted by the Kremlin.
Colonel Alexander Kartavkin, commander of Russia's sixth Motorized Rifle Division, said assault units of three regiments had broken through resistance in Kostiantynivka and were advancing west.
"The assault units of the 1442nd, 1307th and 1008th motorized rifle regiments of the division, having broken the resistance of the enemy in Kostiantynivka, continue the offensive in the western direction and have already reached the southeastern outskirts of Alekseyevo-Druzhkovka," Kartavkin said, according to Russia's Defense Ministry.
Ukraine's General Staff reported 268 combat engagements over the previous 24-hour period. Ukrainian forces recorded 10,106 drone attacks and 93 air strikes dropping 273 guided bombs, plus one missile strike, according to the Ukrainian military.
On the Kostiantynivka direction alone, Russian forces attacked 27 times in the areas of Kostiantynivka, Dovha Balka, Ivanopillia, Illinivka and Stepanivka, the General Staff said.
Ukrainian aviation, missile forces and artillery struck three command posts, nine troop concentration areas, six artillery systems and five enemy drone control points during the same period, according to the General Staff.
Russian losses over the previous day totaled 1,190 personnel, along with one tank, six armored vehicles, 100 artillery systems, one multiple-launch rocket system, six air defense assets, one rocket, six ground robotics systems, 1,768 drones and 407 motor vehicles, according to Ukraine's military.
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