Ukraine is ready to offer unconditional talks on Mariupol and has proposed a “special round” of negotiations with Russia in the besieged city, Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. Another key Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, said he and Podolyak are ready to arrive in Mariupol for talks and “a proposal has been made to conduct direct negotiations on the ground for the evacuation of our military garrison.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in Mariupol was getting worse as around 1,000 civilians remained trapped at the Azovstal Steel Plant with the remaining fighters, who are heavily outnumbered. The Ukrainian president said that 120,000 people were being held in Mariupol and that “crimes happening there are much more frightening and extensive than in Borodyanka,” referring to another devastated Ukrainian city.
Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Vladimir Putin, said he believed Russian forces “would have complete control of the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol before noon. or after lunch” on Thursday.
Finance ministers from the UK, US, Canada and France walked out of the G20 meeting on Wednesday while Russian representatives spoke, amid disagreements over Russia’s continued presence on the panel.
Intelligence agencies indicate Russia is poised to launch powerful cyberattacks against rivals supporting Ukrainemembers of the Five Eyes intelligence network – the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – have warned.
Ukraine is working to persuade western allies to shift Russia’s natural gas supplies from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Ukraine’s pipelineincreasing Kiev’s influence, energy officials told Reuters.
Italy has signed a deal with Angola to increase gas supplies to break away from Russian gas. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi said: “We no longer want to be dependent on Russian gas, because economic dependence must not become political subjugation.”
The US Department of Defense has retracted its claim that Ukraine has been supplied with more planes. Instead, it was said that only parts had been delivered so that Kyiv could put more jets into operation. A senior US defense official said: 14 US howitzers were deliveredalong with their ammunition.
Germany has resisted criticism over its delay in approving heavy arms supplies to Ukraine. The Bild newspaper reported that the government had removed armored vehicles and tanks from a list that German arms manufacturers wanted to make available to Ukraine – and cut the catalog from 48 to 24 pages.
Zelenskyy spoke of his “cautious optimism” that Ukraine’s partners now better understand his country’s needs, apparently in relation to the supply of arms and the tightening of sanctions against Russia.
Ukraine can develop “top speed” when joining the EUZelenskyy said in a national address after a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel on Wednesday evening. He called it a “historic moment”.
Russia said it was testing its Sarmat ICBM, a new addition to its nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon said the test was “routine” and should not be viewed as a threat.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared Vladimir Putin to a crocodile and said he was not optimistic that negotiations could be negotiated with the Russian leader. “How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it has your leg in its jaws, that is the difficulty Ukrainians face. It is very difficult to imagine how Ukrainians can negotiate with Putin now given his apparent lack of good faith.”