 About 3,000 settlements of Ukraine are under temporary occupation. There are 2,804 settlements under temporary occupation, which are located on the territory of 144 territorial communities, the Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine said. At the same time, according to the Department, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, some 687 settlements in 87 territorial communities have been de-occupied. It is noted that there are no statistics yet on the number of persons located in the Temporarily Occupied Territory. The task of ending Moscow's occupation of southern and eastern Ukraine is daunting, given Russia's numerical superiority in men, ammunition and air power, as well as the many months it has had to build up deep defence fortifications. Ukraine launched a counter-offensive against Russian forces occupying the country since the start of their invasion in February. Some Western military analysts said it was too early to draw conclusions about the counter-offensive, and the skirmishes so far may show that Ukraine is still just testing Russian defences. The United States-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine was attempting an extraordinarily difficult tactical operation, a frontal assault against prepared defensive positions further complicated by a lack of air superiority. Aerial assault results should not be over-interpreted, it added.