The war continues and negotiations do not seem to be keeping pace. Indeed, it is not wrong to say in recent weeks that there has been no progress between Ukraine and Russia from a diplomatic point of view. Wladimir Putin started the second phase of his war and made taking Donbass and Donetsk region a priority goal in order to have a trophy to be displayed in Red Square maybe next May 9th. The Russian offensive intensified attacks on the cities, and Mariupol is now in Russian hands, exposed to a pocket of resistance barricaded in one of Europe’s largest steel mills. Zelenskyj does not appear to be willing to negotiate, the city’s case is a common thread for him, but now a negotiation proposal from the Ukrainian side has reached Russia, which has not yet responded to the appeal.
The proposal came via Twitter from Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, which reported on Ukraine’s readiness to set up a special negotiating table in the besieged city on the Sea of Azov. “We are ready to hold a special negotiation session in Mariupol. To save our children, Azov, soldiers, civilians, children, living and wounded. All,” wrote Mykhailo Podolyak. In the previous days, Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked Vladimir Putin for a meeting that could speed up peace talks, but the Kremlin never received a response to Ukraine’s president’s request.
Meanwhile, the situation in Mariupol is becoming increasingly dramatic. The city is besieged for weeks there has been a lack of food, water and all essential raw materials. Civilians are not allowed to leave their homes unless they have special ID cards issued by the Russian military itself, which subject Mariupol residents to a series of questions to gather information about their lives and family before permission is granted . Some civilians find themselves fleeing the steel mill now under attack by the Russian army. And even the humanitarian corridors that should have guaranteed safe escape routes have not worked properly.
“Due to the lack of control over their militaries in the field, the occupiers were unable to ensure an adequate ceasefire. Furthermore, due to their inherent disorganization and neglect, the occupiers were unable to ensure an adequate ceasefire. timely transport of people to the point where dozens of our buses and ambulances were waiting,” said the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk.