Ukraine, Briefly

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• The US embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, has issued a new warning to Americans to leave the country as Ukraine prepares to celebrate its Independence Day Wednesday amid the ongoing Russian aggression, MarketWatch reported. The embassy said in a security advisory that the US State Department has information that Russia is stepping up its efforts to launch strikes against civilian infrastructure and government installations in Ukraine “in the coming days.”

• Approximately 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died as a result of Russia’s invasion of their country since it started almost six months ago, a Ukrainian general said in a rare admission of death figures in the conflict, Al Jazeera noted.

• The United Nations has said it is “very concerned” about plans by Russian-backed authorities to hold trials for captured Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol, the Guardian wrote. A UN rights office representative said that pro-Russian authorities appeared to be placing metal cages in a Mariupol hall as part of plans to set up what they were calling an “international tribunal,” adding that such a move might constitute a war crime in and of itself.