Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Verychuk: Talks are “very difficult”.
© REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko (icon photo)
According to its own version, Ukraine is negotiating with Russia the evacuation of seriously wounded soldiers from the besieged Azov Steel Plant in Mariupol.
Deputy Prime Minister Irina Wirishuk said on Thursday that the talks were “very difficult”. Initially there were only about 38 soldiers who could be exchanged for captured Russians.
Ukraine: Negotiations with Russia
Various media reported earlier that 500 to 600 Ukrainians could be taken out of the steel plant as part of these negotiations. Vereshchuk refused this volume. “We are working step by step.”
Vereshuk: Over a thousand Ukrainian fighters
On Tuesday, she spoke to the French news agency AFP about “more than a thousand” Ukrainian fighters who are still holed up in the industrial complex in Mariupol. Among them were “hundreds of wounded”.
The last Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol
They are the last Ukrainian defenders of the strategically important port city of Mariupol, which is now completely under Russian control except for the industrial zone. Hundreds of civilians have been evacuated from Azov steel mills in recent weeks.
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