Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said her country is holding negotiations with Russia over the evacuation of seriously injured soldiers from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Ukraine seeks to exchange 38 severely injured soldiers from Azovstal for the captured Russian military, Xinhua news agency quoted Vereshchuk as saying in a social media post. Currently, there are no talks on the exchange of 500 or 600 people, which has been reported by some media outlets, Vereshchuk said.
She emphasized that the ongoing negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on the Azovstal evacuation are very difficult. On May 7, Vereshchuk said that Ukraine has evacuated all women, children and the elderly from the Azovstal plant. Mariupol, a key Azov Sea port city in eastern Ukraine, has witnessed of the worst bouts of violence in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Azovstal plant, which covers an area of about 11 square km, is the last stronghold of the Ukrainian forces in Mariupol.