WORLD BRIEFING: April 30, 2024

A deadly Russian missile attack Monday on the Black Sea port of Odesa killed at least five people and injured at least 28, among them two children and a pregnant woman. Four of the wounded are in serious condition receiving urgent care, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said. In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Kiper said one of the injured children is a 12-year-old boy and that the strike damaged houses and set fire to a large building that he described as an academy. He posted evidence showing smoke rising from the building close to the seafront. In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his call for urgent delivery of weapons from allies. -

Ukraine is just beginning to understand the lasting effects of the traumas its prisoners of war experienced in Russian captivity, but it has been failing to treat them properly and returning them to duty too early, say former prisoners, officials and psychologists familiar with individual cases. Nearly 3,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been released from Russia in prisoner exchanges since the 2022 invasion began. More than 10,000 more remain in Russian custody, some of whom have endured two years of conditions that a United Nations expert described as horrific. The Ukrainian government’s rehabilitation program, which has usually involved two months in a sanitarium and a month at home, is inadequate, critics say, and the traumas suffered by Ukrainian prisoners are growing with the length and severity of the abuse they are being subjected to as the war drags on. - NYC

Sophie, Britain's duchess of Edinburgh, has visited Ukraine, meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife in the first trip to the country by a British royal since the conflict with Russia began, Buckingham Palace said on April 29. Sophie, 59, the wife of King Charles's youngest brother, Prince Edward, made the surprise visit on behalf of Britain's Foreign Office to show solidarity with those impacted by the war and as part of her work to champion survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, the palace said. - RFE/RL

In a sign of escalating political pressure on Columbia University, 21 House Democrats wrote a letter to Columbia University’s board of trustees on Monday demanding they disband the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus or step down. “It is past time for the University to act decisively, disband the encampment, and ensure the safety and security of all of its students,” the lawmakers wrote. The letter, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Dan Goldman, argues that the protesters are “unwilling to enter into a reasonable agreement to disband” — something that the lawmakers say must happen to bring Columbia into compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. “The time for negotiation is over; the time for action is now,” the House Democrats wrote. “It is ultimately the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to act. If any Trustees are unwilling to do this, they should resign so that they can be replaced by individuals who will uphold the University’s legal obligations under Title VI.” - CNN

A $300 million superyacht seized from a Russian oligarch sailed into Everett, Washington port Monday morning. The 4,400-ton, 348-foot behemoth sitting in Port Gardner Bay, named Amadea, comes with room for 16 guests and another 36 crew members. It has a top speed of 20 knots (or over 23 mph). It reportedly belonged to sanctioned Russian national Suleyman Kerimov. In 2017, Kerimov, 58, was one of 210 prominent Russians placed on a list by the U.S. Treasury Department under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. The following year, the federal government placed him under U.S. sanctions. The European Union and the United Kingdom followed suit after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. - HeraldNet

A former National Security Agency employee who sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent he believed to be a Russian official was sentenced Monday to nearly 22 years in prison, the penalty requested by government prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore said he could have put Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, behind bars for even longer, calling the 262-month sentence “mercy” for what he saw as a calculated action to take the job at the NSA in order to be able to sell national security secrets. “This was blatant. It was brazen and, in my mind, it was deliberate. It was a betrayal, and it was as close to treasonous as you can get,” Moore said. Dalke’s attorneys had asked for the Army veteran, who pleaded guilty to espionage charges last fall in a deal with prosecutors, to be sentenced to 14 years in prison, in part because the information he sold in 2022 did not end up in enemy hands and cause damage. - AP