Ukraine collects Russian dead as war rages

STORY: At a rail yard outside Kyiv, corpses are being stacked into a refrigerated train.

They are Russian soldiers, their bodies collected from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, now set for the long journey back to their families.

It's a matter of Ukraine strictly adhering to international humanitarian law, says chief civilian-military liaison officer Volodymyr Lyamzin.

He reported that there were several hundred bodies in the refrigerator train, and several such trains at the rail yard.

While there are no reliable estimates of Russia's losses, such scenes could signify the price President Vladimir Putin is paying since ordering the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Fierce Ukrainian resistance, which military analysts say Putin and his generals failed to anticipate, has slowed and in some places reversed Russian advances.

Russian forces have been driven away from the second largest city Kharkiv - though nearby villages continue to be bombarded.

Moscow's most tangible success in what it calls a "special military operation" has been to capture a swathe of territory along the southern coast linking the Crimean peninsula with the Donbas.

In the port city Mariupol, Russian troops are still trying to extinguish the last bastion of resistance in the giant Azovstal steelworks.

Many of those inside are members of the Azov regiment. Its deputy commander said on Friday (May 13) his forces would continue to resist as long as they could.

Late on Friday Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said difficult talks were underway on evacuating a "large number" of wounded soldiers from the besieged plant.

He said "influential" international intermediaries were involved in the talks, without elaborating.

Russia, which initially insisted the defenders give themselves up, has said little publicly about the talks.