Previously, another advisor to the Ukrainian presidency, Mijailo Podoliak, had recalled on Twitter that the Ukrainian government demanded “a truce” in Mariupol for Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated this Sunday, and “an immediate humanitarian corridor for civilians” blocked in that port city, as well as “an agreement for special negotiations to exchange military prisoners”.
Ukrainian combatants continue to be entrenched in the large Azovstal factory, lacking food and ammunition, and “around a thousand civilians, women and children” and “hundreds of wounded”, according to the Ukrainian president.
His Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, called for the surrender of these last combatants and asked his army to besiege “the area so that not even a fly can get through.”
Russia claims it is seeking “total control” of southern Ukraine and the eastern Donbass region in order to have a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to resolve the conflict are stalled, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. The latest discussions, via videoconference, did not lead to any apparent progress.
Last week, the Ukrainian government had said that negotiations with Moscow were “extremely difficult”.