INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ukraine called Wednesday for urgent negotiations with Russia in Mariupol, which appeared close to falling after weeks of siege, as Vladimir
Putin flexed his military muscle with the test launch of a new, nuclear capable ICBM.Washington downplayed the test of the intercontinental
ballistic missile and said it had been notified in advance, but Putin said it would make the Kremlin's enemies "think twice," raising
tensions nearly two months after he invaded Ukraine and ignited a global crisis.Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Sea of Azov, has been
under a horrific siege almost since the invasion began
On Wednesday, Moscow issued another call for the devastated city's defenders to surrender.But Kyiv proposed a "special round" of talks with
To save our guys, Azov, military, civilians, children, the living - the wounded
Because they are ours," wrote top Ukraine negotiator and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak on Twitter.He tweeted after a Ukrainian
commander in the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol issued a desperate plea for help, saying his marines were "maybe facing our last
days, if not hours.""The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one," said Serhiy Volyna from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade."We appeal and plead
to all world leaders to help us
We ask them to use the procedure of extraction and take us to the territory of a third-party state."An adviser to the city's mayor described
of drinking water, food and fresh air."Powerful bombs have been dropped several times on Azovstal, we have been bombed from boats..
The front is 360 degrees," said Svyatoslav Palamar, a commander in the nationalist Azov battalion defending the city, in a post on
Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on Feb
24.Capturing it would allow Russia to have a land bridge between the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and the two Moscow-backed
south, European Council leader Charles Michel visited Kyiv and vowed the EU would do "everything possible" to help Ukraine win the war."You
We are with you," Michel said during a press conference alongside Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.Zelensky said his country still did
his partners "understand our needs better."Ahead of Michel's arrival, the Pentagon said Ukraine had received fighter planes to bolster its
everything it can to help Kyiv, without igniting a direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.On Wednesday U.S
Western "weapons and ammunition are flowing in daily."He said NATO remains "united, focused and energized," adding: "I don't think Putin
counted on it."'Nothing good'Russia said Wednesday its forces had launched 73 air strikes across Ukraine, hitting dozens of locations where
worst."It's going to be a mess," said Alexander, 53
"There's nothing good to expect."Further from the frontlines, residents were still reeling weeks after Russian forces withdrew from the area
body bags arrived in carts or were piled up in trailers, vans and non-refrigerated trucks.Four hundred bodies have been discovered there
since the Russians withdrew on March 31, local police chief Vitaly Lobas told AFP
Around a quarter of them are still unidentified."The majority died violent deaths," Lobas said.Ukrainian authorities have said that over
1,200 bodies have been found in the Kyiv region so far.Putin has said he launched the so-called military operation in Ukraine to save
