T�rk stated. ... This led to an unrecognized referendum and Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, as well as Russian military support for armed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region ... ....
... slowed to a crawl, with Putin often resorting to announcing entirely fictional gains, most recently his Ministry of Defense’s claim to have taken the heavily contested Donbas town of Kostyantynivka.
Ukraine meanwhile has continued to target Russian energy infrastructure ...Russia’s Donetsk claims. The Kremlin has long insisted that the conflict will only end when Russia has taken all of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine ... ....
These days, Kostyantynivka is a crater-pocked wasteland of smoldering rubble leveled by drones, artillery, and, in recent weeks, devastating Russian glide bombs ... ....