Ukraine on Wednesday (April 20th) offered Russia a “special session of negotiations” in Mariupol, a port city on the besieged Sea of Azov, declared Mykhaïlo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency and one of the negotiators with Russia. “We are ready to hold a ‘special negotiating session’ in Mariupol. To save our guys, (the battalion) Azov, soldiers, civilians, children, the living and the wounded. Everyone,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “We are ready to come with Mykhailo Podolyak at any time for these negotiations, as soon as we receive confirmation from the Russian side,” said Ukrainian chief negotiator David Arakhamia on his Telegram channel. ‘The enemy outnumbers us 10 times’ After weeks of fighting, the city appears to be falling to Russian forces, who have stepped up their strikes, according to one of the beleaguered Ukrainian military commanders in Mariupol. “The enemy outnumbers us 10 times,” said Serguii Volyna of the 36th Marine Infantry Brigade. According to President Zelensky, the Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the vast steel complex of Azovstal, the last island of resistance in the city, “protect at the cost of their lives […] around a thousand civilians, women and children”. “Critical” situation at the Azovstal factory Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov battalion, one of the two Ukrainian formations still resisting in Mariupol, underlined in a video message on Telegram on Wednesday that the situation was “critical” in the shelled factory by the Russian air force with “super powerful bombs”. He called on international leaders to “save first and foremost” the civilians inside the factory. The humanitarian corridor from Mariupol, the first since Saturday April 16, has not worked, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced in the evening, accusing the Russians of violating the ceasefire and blocking buses. .
War in Ukraine. kyiv offers Russia negotiations in MariupolEXPAND