The New York Times reports:

The Ukrainian soldiers thought the Russians would quickly retreat from Neskuchne, a tiny village in southern Ukraine, especially after a concerted artillery barrage and a rocket strike on their headquarters.

Instead, the Russians dug in, fighting for two days before giving up the village last month, leaving their dead decaying on the roadside and piles of expended ammunition around their makeshift defenses.

The Russian defeat, on June 9, was Ukraine’s first win in a prolonged counteroffensive that is well into its fourth week but moving at a slower pace than expected. In that respect, the battle for Neskuchne served as an early warning that Kyiv’s and the Western allies’ hopes for a quick victory were unrealistic and that every mile of their drive into Russian-occupied territory would be grueling and contested.

The dayslong battle was fought largely by a contingent of volunteer fighters who attacked on foot, not by the large, NATO-trained brigades equipped with Western tanks and armored troop transports that military analysts thought would lead the long-awaited advance.

Soldiers who described the fighting, along with visual evidence of the battle still scattered around Neskuchne two weeks after it ended, made clear that Ukraine’s success had hinged on ingenuity that helped catch the Russian forces off guard.

In the days after Neskuchne’s “liberation,” which was announced on June 10, Ukrainian forces have managed to retake several villages farther south. But since that early string of victories, Ukraine’s offensive has been slow. Ukrainian forces have been mired by staunch Russian defenses, mounting casualties and field after field of land mines. [Continue reading…]