Ukraine, Briefly

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• A court in the pro-Russian self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Thursday sentenced to death three foreigners convicted of being “mercenaries” for Ukraine, the Washington Post reported. The three men – two British and one Moroccan – were apprehended by Russian authorities in Mariupol in mid-April. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday that Russian forces have started paying pensions in Russian rubles to residents of Mariupol, CNN added. According to the Russian official news agency RIA Novosti, around 46,000 applications for pension payments have been received, and officials in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have started distributing those benefits.

• The true human cost of Russia’s siege of Mariupol was revealed Thursday as rescue workers discovered hundreds of victims in the ruins of bombed-out buildings around the Ukrainian port city, USA Today wrote. According to local officials, 50 to 100 bodies have been discovered in several structures. Ukrainian authorities believe that at least 21,000 Mariupol citizens were killed during the weeks-long Russian siege.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports might lead to the deaths of millions, the New York Post noted. He also called for Russia to be expelled from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization over the impact its war in Ukraine has had on global food insecurity, according to CNN.