Ukraine reclaimed an occupied village during its counteroffensive with far fewer troops than Russia, The New York Times reports

• Ukraine entered the fourth week of its counteroffensive as Russia laid out a strong defense.
• In one of their earliest victories, Ukraine reclaimed a cluster of villages around eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine recaptured a small village in the Donetsk region with about half the troops Russia had, representing one of the country's earliest victories during its slow-moving counteroffensive operation, The New York Times reported.

Ukraine is now in the fourth week of its much-anticipated counteroffensive that began in early June. Officials, including US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, warned the counteroffensive would take longer than some anticipated, giving timelines of up to 10 weeks. Since the operation began, Ukraine has made incremental gains.

The slow advancement is partly caused by Russia's fortified defensive line in occupied territories — some of which have been set up since the outset of the invasion. This includes minefields, anti-vehicle barricades, and trench labyrinths. Ukraine's troops are also operating with considerably less manpower than Moscow.

In Neskuchne, a small village in the eastern Donetsk region that Russia has occupied since last spring, Ukraine relied on 70 soldiers — mostly volunteers — from the 129th Territorial Defense Brigade to face 150 Russian soldiers from the 60th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, the Times reported. According to the Times, Russia also has a contingent of troops known as the Storm Z unit that consists of former inmates.

Ukrainian soldiers told the newspaper that reclaiming the village was a slow and painstaking process.

One soldier from the 129th brigade told the Times that his troops had to "liberate house after house," initially believing that there were no more than 20 Russians in the village.

According to the Times, Ukrainian soldiers first moved in on Neskuchne by foot before carrying out an artillery attack with small drones. On the second day of the attack, the troops were supported by another 20 soldiers from a nearby brigade.

Russian troops retreated by June 9, the Times reported. More than a dozen Russian soldiers were killed and wounded, and six Ukrainian soldiers died, according to the report.

Ukrainian troops later recaptured three other settlements, BBC reported.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that soldiers advanced 300 to 1,500 meters in southern Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War.