MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Acting leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin on Tuesday described the situation in the Maryinka area as tense amid a constant redeployment of Ukrainian troops.

"The situation is quite tense near Maryinka now <…>, but even in these circumstances we have been improving our positions," Pushilin told Soloviev Live TV show.

According to the acting DPR head, the enemy is entrenched on major fortifications and it’s hard to knock them out of there. "Things have not been easy, and the situation is tense, but we have been advancing anyway," he said.

Maryinka lies west of Donetsk. On April 11, Pushilin reported "a very serious" improvement in the positions of Russian troops in the Maryinka direction where he said a Ukrainian stronghold on the premises of a tire repairing shop was taken under control. The DPR also said the liberation of Maryinka would make it impossible for the Ukrainians to shell Aleksandrovka and the Petrovsky and Tekstilshchik districts of Donetsk.