Ukraine Briefly

June 01, 2022

Ukraine, Briefly

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• A Ukrainian court convicted two Russian troops guilty of “violating the laws and customs of war” and sentenced them to 11.5 years in prison, the second judgment handed down in Ukraine’s war crimes proceedings during the conflict, the Washington Post reported. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said authorities have identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects since the invasion began, Reuters added.

• Russian forces have captured half of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, which is critical to Moscow’s aspirations to control the industrial Donbas area, according to the mayor, who spoke to the Associated Press on Tuesday.

• More than 3,000 Russian servicemen have been killed in Ukraine after more than three months of war, according to the investigative news site iStories, the Moscow Times wrote. Using social media, news reports, and confirmation from family, the publication gathered open-source data to identify and authenticate the deaths of 3,043 Russian troops. While the number is unlikely to reflect Russia’s actual losses in Ukraine, the figure already far outstrips official estimates from the Russian Defense Ministry.

• Companies sanctioned by the West would be legally immune from electing boards of directors, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin stated Tuesday at a cabinet meeting, according to the Moscow Times. The measure is likely to help the Kremlin and a tightly-knit group of oligarchs to keep a firm hold on joint-stock enterprises rattled by a large, forced exodus of sanctioned corporate executives.

• A top Russian lawmaker has proposed kidnapping a NATO defense minister in Ukraine and transporting the minister to Moscow for questioning, Sky News noted.

This story originally appeared in the June 01, 2022 newsletter, But First, Trust.