Ukraine proposed to hold a "special round" of negotiations with Russia in the besieged city of Mariupol after an ultimatum issued by Russia for the surrender of the last troops still resisting in the city expired on April 20.
Chief Ukrainian negotiator and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said the Ukrainian side is ready to hold the talks without conditions.
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"One on one. Two on two. To save our guys, Azov, military, civilians, children, the living & the wounded. Everyone. Because they are ours. Because they are in my heart. Forever," Podolyak said on Twitter.
Another key Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, said on Telegram that he and Podolyak "are ready to arrive in Mariupol to hold talks with the Russian side on the evacuation of our military garrison and civilians."
Arakhamia said that he and Podolyak were in constant contact with Ukrainian forces in the city.
"Today, in a conversation with the city defenders, a proposal was put forward to hold direct negotiations, on site, on the evacuation of our military garrison," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow to the proposal.
Russia said earlier that it had presented Ukraine with a draft document outlining its demands for ending the conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “the ball is in their court. We’re waiting for a response.” He gave no details on the draft.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had not seen or heard of the proposal, though one of his top advisers said the Ukrainian side was reviewing it.
Kyiv and Moscow have not held face-to-face peace talks since March 29. Each side blames the other for the breakdown in negotiations, raising fears of a prolonged war.
The fall of Mariupol would be a strategic prize and huge morale boost for Moscow, helping to link territory held by Russia-backed separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
The Ukrainian military said earlier on April 20 that Russian forces continuing their assault on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, where Ukrainian troops and civilians are said to be holding out.
A Ukrainian commander in the Azovstal plant issued a desperate plea for help, saying his marines are "maybe facing our last days, if not hours."
"The enemy is outnumbering us 10-to-1," said Serhiy Volyna from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade.
SEE ALSO: Inside Azovstal: The Ukrainian Metalworks That Has Become A 'Last Stand' FortressOne of the victims of the intense battle was 91-year-old Vanda Obyedkova, who 81 years earlier had survived the Nazi invasion of Mariupol.
The Chabad.org media website said on April 19 that Obyedkova had died 15 days earlier as she succumbed to a lack of water and basic necessities while hiding in a basement in Mariupol waiting for the fighting to end.
“Mama didn’t deserve such a death,” her daughter Larissa, who risked her own life to bury her mother in a nearby park less than a kilometer from the sea, told the news outlet.
WATCH: Ukrainian soldiers have dug in and are bracing for battle in the eastern Luhansk region as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russian forces have launched their offensive in the Donbas. RFE/RL reporter Maryan Kushnir visited the Ukrainian trenches outside the town of Kreminna on April 18.
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Ukrainian Troops Brace For Battle As Russia Launches Donbas Offensive
Ukraine accused Russian forces of failing to observe a cease-fire agreement long enough to allow large numbers of women, children, and elderly people to flee Mariupol.
Ukrainian officials had hoped to use 90 buses to evacuate about 6,000 of the 100,000 civilians believed to be trapped there. But regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said fewer buses than planned were able to reach Mariupol and fewer people than hoped were evacuated.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the humanitarian corridor "did not work as planned today" and said it was due to the Russian forces' "disorganization and negligence."
There was no response from Russia, which denies targeting civilians and has blamed Ukraine for the failure of earlier attempts to organize humanitarian corridors out of Mariupol.
A group of Russian activist and artists called for a cease-fire before Orthodox Easter. Human rights activist Zoya Svetova, philosopher Mikhail Epshtein, and actor and director Aleksandr Feklistov are among those who signed an open letter published by Novaya gazeta's European edition.
The appeal asks for a cease-fire at least until Orthodox Easter on April 24.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have repulsed 10 attacks by Russian forces in Donetsk and Luhansk over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said.
On the diplomatic front, European Council President Charles Michel arrived in Kyiv on April 20 in a show of support for Ukraine.
"In Kyiv today," Michel tweeted under a photograph of him at a train station. "In the heart of a free and democratic Europe."
Michel later met with Zelenskiy.
"There are no words...to explain what I feel," he said during a joint news conference with Zelenskiy, reflecting on visit he made to Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv. "These are atrocities. These are war crimes. It must be punished. It will be punished," Michel said.
Michel's trip followed visits this month to Kyiv by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
"You are not alone," Michel said, praising the courage of the Ukrainian people. "We are with you and will do everything which is possible to support you and to make sure that Ukraine will win the war."
Ukraine suspects that Russian troops carried out atrocities in Borodyanka and Bucha, another town near the capital. Moscow has described the allegations as fabricated by Kyiv to justify more sanctions against it.
A recent retreat by Russian forces from towns such as Bucha and Borodyanka have revealed harrowing evidence of brutal killings, torture, mass graves, and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians in the fighting, which Michel said would be met with justice.
"Like Bucha and too many other towns in #Ukraine. History will not forget the war crimes that have been committed here. There can be no peace without justice," Michel tweeted after touring Borodyanka.
After failing to seize Kyiv and other large and strategic cities in its nearly eight-week war, Moscow now says its aim is to capture the full provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, which have been the focus of Russia-backed separatists since 2014.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden convened U.S. military leaders in an annual White House policy meeting that took on special significance amid the war in Ukraine.
A "variety of topics" were set to be discussed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior military leaders, a National Security Council spokesperson said.
Opening the meeting, Biden touted the toughness of the Ukrainian military and said that NATO's unity has shocked Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"They're tougher and more proud than I thought; I'm amazed what they're doing with your help," Biden said. "I don't think that Putin counted on it being able to hold us together."
Russia said on April 20 that it had conducted the first test-launch of its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a new addition to its nuclear arsenal.
President Vladimir Putin was shown on television being told by military officials that the missile had been launched from Plesetsk in the northwest and had hit targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East.
Putin called the missile "truly unique" and said it would "strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure Russia's security from external threats, and provide food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country."
The Sarmat has been under development for years and so the test is not a surprise for the West, but it comes with tensions high over the war.
Russia properly notified the United States ahead of its launch, the Pentagon said, adding that it saw the test as routine and not a threat to the United States.