According to AP, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Wednesday said that negotiations were underway to release the injured fighters who are holed up in the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. In retaliation to Russian aggression on its territory, Ukraine has also shut down a pipeline that takes Moscow’s gas to Western Europe, which contributes greatly to the Russian economy.

Ukraine has also closed a Kremlin-installed politician in the southern Kherson region said officials there want Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex it. Meanwhile, amid talks of an exchange, a former Russian fighter said that Russia’s troops were not prepared for a direct war with Ukraine The Russian military`s failure to seize the Ukrainian capital was inevitable because in the preceding years they had never directly faced a powerful enemy, according to a former mercenary with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group who fought alongside the Russian army, reported Reuters.