Ukraine claims recapture of 4th village in Donetsk

Kyiv: Ukrainian military officials said Monday their troops have retaken another southeastern village from Russian forces, among the first small successes in stepped-up counteroffensive operations as the war drags on into its 16th month.

Western analysts and military officials have cautioned that an effort to rid Ukraine of entrenched, powerfully armed and skilled Russian troops could take years, and the success of any Ukrainian counteroffensive is far from certain.

Despite their small size, capturing the villages is an incursion into the first line of Russian defences and could allow Ukrainian forces to try a deeper thrust into occupied areas.

Russian forces now control land totalling about one-fifth of Ukraine’s total territory, though that’s far less than they held before blistering Ukrainian counteroffensives.