How to set column height?

Question

css

There is two-ring news with a blue border. (there, because of the large picture, the news was changed into one column)
How can I set a fixed height for columns with a blue border if the width is already specified with the flex parameters? Only with height?
After the specified height, how to stick the text: Views-comments to the bottom of the block?
And how to make the image stretched to the width of the block and the height was determined automatically? (if the picture is small, it was in the center of the block)
My code at the moment:
https://codepen.io/anon/pen/MqRGyN
An example of how I want to do it:

Answer 1

https://codepen.io/anon/pen/QVPxOK?editors=1100

Answer 2

So https://codepen.io/anon/pen/rZbvEj for the same height.
If you need to limit the height, then also set overflow hidden and attach the More button as an absolute at the bottom.

Answer 3

voproser are you considering using ONLY CSS?