MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Ukraine’s military is conducting an active offensive operation in Avdeyevka and Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine) as well as in the Maryinka and Liman areas, and all this together can be considered "part of the counteroffensive," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said on Wednesday.

"The counteroffensive should not be reduced to some active offensive actions. But taken together, if we talk about our strategic goal, they can be described as counteroffensive measures," she said.

"The Ukrainian armed forces are not preparing one thing at a time in any particular area. The Ukrainian armed forces are preparing a whole range of defensive and counteroffensive measures daily. And therefore, the active assault actions in Artyomovsk, Maryinka as well as in the areas of Avdeyevka and Liman, can also be regarded as part of the counterattack," she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Nevertheless, Malyar acknowledged the successes of Russian forces "in some areas."

On Tuesday, Yan Gagin, advisor to Acting Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin, told TASS that Russia’s forces had taken control of nearly 90% of the city of Artyomovsk. Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said earlier on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military’s attempts to counterattack assault units in Artyomovsk and some inhabited localities of the Donetsk People’s Republic had been suppressed.

On April 11, DPR Acting Head Denis Pushilin said that Russian forces continued to encircle Avdeyevka successfully, keeping the Ukrainian troops’ supply routes under fire control. He stressed that there was tangible progress in that area.