Senior Ukrainian negotiators have offered to hold special talks with Russia in Mariupol without conditions in a bid to evacuate troops and civilians from the besieged port city.
Negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Wednesday that the talks could be “one on one. Two on two. To save our guys, (the far right) Azov (battalion), military, civilians, children, the living and the wounded”.
Ukraine accused Russian forces on Wednesday of failing to observe a local ceasefire agreement long enough to allow large numbers of women, children and elderly people to flee the city, which has been largely pounded to rubble by Russian forces.
