Published by
Reuters UK
Reuters UK
By Sergiy Karazy and Pavel Polityuk KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s president said very difficult talks were underway on evacuating “a large number” of wounded soldiers from a besieged steelworks in the strategic southeastern port of Mariupol in return for the release of Russian prisoners of war. Mariupol, which has seen the heaviest fighting in nearly three months of war, is now in Russian hands but hundreds of Ukrainian defenders are still holding out at the Azovstal steelworks despite weeks of heavy Russian bombardment. Fierce Ukrainian resistance, which military analysts say President Vladimir P…