MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar has admitted that the Ukrainian army is facing problems in the course of their counteroffensive, which is proceeding slower than Ukraine would want.

"It is quite understandable that people want it to be like a movie - very quick: the movie begins at 1:00 p.m. and ends in 80 minutes. And it is clear what happened," she wrote on her Telegram channel on Tuesday. "Naturally, things will not be this way in reality and the war is an absolutely different situation. We will advance gradually, with difficulties, facing fierce resistance."

According to Malyar, it is wrong to assess the effectiveness of the attack solely in terms of the number of kilometers they manage to move forward or the number of settlements they take. There are a lot of criteria of efficiency and the military has a lot of tasks, she noted, not going into detail. "We must understand that the tasks set for the military are being attained and that troops are advancing in all areas of the offensive," she stressed.

In her words, Ukrainian forces are moving forward in some areas and are on the defensive in other areas. Nevertheless, the "main strike" from the Ukrainian army "is coming," she warned.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces are facing "dug-in Russian resistance" during their offensive.

The Ukrainian army has been making futile attempts to stage an offensive since the beginning of the month. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on June 14 that since June 4 around 7,500 Ukrainian troops had either been killed or wounded while attempting to attack in the southern Donetsk, Zaporozhye, and Donetsk areas. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian forces are not seeing success in any area.