Dnipro — Ukraine is fighting hard with a new counteroffensive to liberate Russian-occupied territory, one village at a time, often in close-quarters urban or trench warfare. Ukrainian defense officials say the battles going on now in the south and east of the country are extremely fierce. CBS News met Ukraine's 108th Territorial Defense Brigade as the troops returned from the front lines, and they shared video and their own personal accounts of how vicious the fighting has been.

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Their helmet and body cameras show how they move into position under the cover of darkness, taking advantage of Western-supplied night vision to give them an edge over the Russian invaders.

When morning broke, the officer in charge gave the command to attack. 

"It took us two days to push nearly 3 miles," one of the soldiers who led that first assault, who uses the callsign "Blacksmith," told CBS News. 

The Russians were dug in and their positions heavily fortified, but intense artillery fire finally forced them to flee.

The quickness of the Russians' retreat was evident in the trenches they abandoned, with weapons, rations and other items left scattered across the ground, but war has taught the Ukrainian troops a valuable lesson:

"Don't touch," said one of the troops. "Anything could be boobytrapped."

Asked if the Russian forces were putting up a fierce resistance, brigade commander Anton said when his men first broke the line of defense, the occupying troops showed "a little panic and they moved fast," but he knows they were only retreating to another line of better fortified trenches. 

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Anton described how his troops would keep up the pursuit, picking meticulously through mine-infested treelines for cover, "to be slow, to be silent, and to be safe."

When Blacksmith and his squad reached their final objective, Anton gave the order for them to move in, clear the area and then dig in.

Asked if it was good to finally be on the offensive rather than just holding a line, Anton said "There's no war you can win without attack. You can't win the war with defense only, and we're glad to move forward."

The 108th Brigade was about to get some rest, but their training never stops. The men aren't professional soldiers, and many had never held a gun before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, prompting them to volunteer.

Now, they're battle -hardened warriors, and as Blacksmith told CBS News, they are completely certain "we'll win."

"Morale is high, because we're pushing forward," he said. "Everyone wants victory."

The one thing the soldiers they wish they had more of, they said, is tanks. More are coming, from both Europe and, later, the United States.

Top U.S. defense officials said Wednesday that about 200  Ukrainian troops were expected to complete training to operate American-made Abrams main battle tanks by the end of the summer. That should just about line up with the expected delivery this fall of the 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks the U.S. promised Ukraine earlier this year.

If they had more tanks already, the Ukrainian troops of the 108th told CBS News, the war would be over a lot sooner.

In:
• War
• Ukraine
• Russia
• Vladimir Putin

Ian Lee

Ian Lee is a CBS News correspondent based in London, where he reports for CBS News, CBS Newspath and CBS News Streaming Network. Lee, who joined CBS News in March 2019, is a multi-award-winning journalist, whose work covering major international stories has earned him some of journalism's top honors, including an Emmy, Peabody and the Investigative Reporters and Editors' Tom Renner award.

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