First, ground robots equipped with machine guns trundled forward, firing towards concealed Russians. Loudspeakers urged them to surrender. Then, two Ukrainian tanks joined the battle. They shelled houses and a school painted with a colourful mural. The rounds shivered trees and rattled the sign on Vesele’s bus stop. “After that we went in and started clearing the area. Every house, bush and basement,” the platoon’s commander – call-sign Tarantino – said.

The operation to recapture Hruzike went smoothly. In one building, several dazed Russians meekly raised their hands. But Vesele was tougher. After filing down the main road, past broken and burning cottages, Tarantino’s eight-person outfit came to two final houses. From a cellar inside, Russians shot at him. “A bullet hit my helmet like a fist-punch,” he said. “I was alive, thank God. The helmet saved me. I rolled away as our guys returned fire.”

…

Ukraine’s small counteroffensive goes to the heart of how the war is perceived. During their infamous February meeting in the White House, Trump intimated to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that Russia’s victory was inevitable and told him he had “no cards”. After speaking with Zelenskyy in September at the UN general assembly in New York, Trump then said he believed Ukraine could take back all the land it has lost including Crimea, annexed in 2014 – and delivered his “paper tiger” dismissal of the Kremlin’s military forces.

What is more intimidating for Russia than just the counteroffensive is that Ukraine has shown the restraint, coordination and effective valuing of human lives necessary to conduct clearing operations. This is not a given, if you just throw your infantry at the problem you will grind them to pieces, you need to support them with closely integrated recon and artillery to keep them alive and mentally ok. Clearing operations are brutal and it is exactly the kind of thing Russia has relied on in the past to break invaders of their country. Ukraine has demonstrated it will not make that mistake and I would be very nervous if I was a Russian general right now.