New Delhi: Ukraine on Wednesday, April 20, said it is ready to hold a “special round” of negotiations with Russia in Mariupol, a top Kyiv official said.
“Yes. Without any conditions. We’re ready to hold a “special round of negotiations” right in Mariupol. One on one. Two on two. To save our guys, Azov, military, civilians, children, the living & the wounded. Everyone. Because they are ours. Because they are in my heart. Forever,“ top Ukraine negotiator and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
According to a report by news agency AFP, David Arakhamia, another key Ukrainian negotiator, said that he and Podolyak "are ready to arrive in Mariupol to hold talks with the Russian side on the evacuation of our military garrison and civilians".
On Wednesday, another attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol failed. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned that "the situation in Mariupol is deteriorating" with thousands of troops and civilians stuck in the city, the report said.
Svyatoslav Palamar, a commander in the nationalist Azov regiment that has been defending the city against Russia's siege, said on Wednesday that his forces were ready to be evacuated together with civilians from the strategic southern port.
"We are ready to be evacuated with the help of a third party from the city of Mariupol with our small arms," Palamar said in a video posted on Telegram, AFP reported.
Palamar added that the goal was "to evacuate the wounded, get the bodies of the dead out and to bury them with honours on territory not controlled by the Russian Federation."
He also said that his unit would not pay attention to Russia's demands for the troops to surrender fully with their weapons.
According to the report, he called on the "whole civilised world to be the guarantors of our safety" at these negotiations. There was no immediate response from Moscow to the proposal, the report said.
Serhiy Volyna, another Azov commander in the besieged Azovstal steel plant, on Wednesday issued a desperate plea for help. He said his marines were "maybe facing our last days, if not hours".
He also said that “the enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one”.
On Wednesday, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said that the country has successfully tested the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. Putin said that the weapon capable of carrying nuclear charges will make Kremlin's enemies "think twice”, AFP reported. It was launched from Plesetsk testing field.
Western analysts call the Sarmat ‘Satan 2’, which is among Russia’s next-generation missiles, and which Putin has called “invincible”. These also include the Kinzhal and Avangard hypersonic missiles.