Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement on September 1 that 15 settlements and an area of 270 square kilometers in the Donetsk People’s Republic came under the control of the Russian army in August.
CNN’s assessment of Donbas
CNN wrote that the advance of Russian forces in Donbas had weakened Ukraine’s battlefield optimism. The report said that the weakening of the defensive line in the region had caused Kyiv to lose its operational advantage.
In recent years, the Ukrainian administration allocated significant resources to fortification efforts around Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka.
According to CNN’s assessment, the advance of the Russian army significantly weakened this defensive line, and Kostiantynivka came under Russian control.