❗️The Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Russia’s operational-tactical and army aviation and artillery have engaged the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkov region. The enemy suffered losses of up to 50 Ukrainian troops, two armored fighting vehicles, and one Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces have inflicted fire damage on enemy manpower and hardware in the DPR and LPR. The enemy suffered losses of up to 60 Ukrainian troops, two armored fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, one Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, as well as one D-20 howitzer.

▪️ Assault detachments continued their offensive in the northwest and west part of the city of Artyomovsk. Airborne troops support the action of the assault detachments paralyzing the enemy on the flanks. Russian aviation conducted ten sorties in this area during the past 24 hours.

▪️ Russia’s operational-tactical and army aviation and artillery inflicted fire damage on the 67th Mechanized Brigade, 80th Air Assault Brigade, and 5th Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the DPR. The enemy has suffered losses of over 240 Ukrainian troops and mercenaries, three armored fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, as well as one Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system in the past 24 hours.

▪️ Aviation, artillery, and heavy flamethrower systems of the Russian Armed Forces carried out an attack against Ukrainian units in the DPR and Zaporozhye region. Up to 70 Ukrainian troops, one command post vehicle, three armored fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, and one Msta-B howitzer have been neutralized during the day.

▪️ Russian troops have neutralized up to 80 Ukrainian troops, four motor vehicles, and one Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system during the day in Kherson region.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Russian forces have engaged 98 Ukrainian artillery units, manpower, and hardware in 119 areas during the day.

▪️ Russian air defense units have shot down one Su-27 airplane of the Ukrainian Air Force in Kherson region.

▪️ Air defense systems have downed four HIMARS projectiles during the day.

▪️ Some 420 airplanes and 230 helicopters, 4,062 unmanned aerial vehicles, 421 air defense missile systems, 9,067 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,098 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4,780 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 10,103 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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❗️ US congressional investigation shows Biden family received over $10 million from foreign sources, congressmen do not consider it legal

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Kremlin on Warsaw's hostile actions: Poland has hated Russians for centuries

Poland has been expressing hatred toward Russians for centuries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, an aggressive crowd blocked the way for Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev at a memorial cemetery in Warsaw where he arrived to lay flowers on Victory Day. The crowd demanded that the ambassador remove the St. George ribbon from his jacket. Andreev failed to lay a wreath at the cemetery and had to leave the memorial.

"It is not even Russophobia anymore, it is a process on the verge of madness that is happening in Poland. We know that throughout history, Poland has been slipping into this madness of hatred of Russians from time to time, this has been reoccurring for many centuries," Peskov said, answering the question of how the Kremlin assesses the behavior in Poland.

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🇬🇭 Two people in Ghana were lynched after being accused of witchcraft

▪️Both victims – Imoro Safura and Mba Cherefo – were accused of mystically making a woman from Ghana's Mion district ill, after her parents turned for help from the fortune-teller.

▪️It is reported that an angry young man from the community attacked Safura at her home on Sunday. She tried to escape and run to Cherefo's place, but they managed to stop her and she was lynched.

▪️As a result, the young man chased Mba Cherefo and reportedly murdered him at his home.

▪️County police have launched an investigation into the case. Lamnatu Adam, Secretary of the Regional Re-integration Committee of Alleged Witches, underlined the need for a rapid inquiry into the case, strongly condemning the lynching

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Poland to get Abrams tanks, HIMARS systems from US this May

Warsaw will receive US Abrams tanks and HIMARS rocket launchers by the end of the month, according to the Polish Deputy Prime Minister and National Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

The goal is to create a powerful military unit equipped with Abrams tanks, and the first American tank will join the 18th Mechanized Unit in the east of Poland. The country is also expecting the delivery of the first HIMARS missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers, with negotiations for another 500 systems ongoing.

In 2022, the Polish Ministry of Defense acquired 250 new Abrams from the United States, while a supply agreement was signed in January for another 116 used tanks.

Poland first acquired a squadron of 20 HIMARS worth $414 million from the US in 2019, and the US Congress approved Poland's order for another 500 HIMARS Launcher Loader Module kits, worth $10 billion.

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US Congressman George Santos arrested on charges of embezzlement, fraud

Santos has been arrested on charges of embezzlement, fraud, money laundering and making false statements to the House of Representatives, the Justice Department said.

"A 13-count indictment ... charging George Anthony Devolder Santos ... with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives," the Justice Department said in a press release.

Santos was arrested on Wednesday morning and will be arraigned this afternoon before US Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, the statement added.

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🇺🇸 US congressional investigation names nine Biden family members who allegedly received payments from foreign sources via a network of shell companies

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🗣️”There certainly is an understanding, it seems to be among the EU non-elite that they cannot continue to go on with these US sanctions or being proxies for the US in this war in Ukraine,” Dr. Linwood Tauheed, associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, speaks about the desire of EU countries to independently determine their own policies

🎧Listen to more of Tauheed’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

🕵️ Elon Musk slams WhatsApp over claims it's spying on users

💬 "WhatsApp cannot be trusted," said Musk, commenting on a post with a screenshot showing the app accessing a user’s microphone while he was sleeping. The screenshot showed how WhatsApp used the mic nine times at night in less than 3 hours.

Glad to have you on Telegram, everyone!😉

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🇷🇺🇵🇱 “Duchy of Warsaw”: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reacts to a decision by a Polish commission to rename Russia’s Kaliningrad in a move against “Russification” and reminds them how Poland was named when it was part of the Russian Empire

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🗣️”They exploit the Latino community and the majority of the minorities that are coming across the border by doing so. They send the wrong message, empower the cartels at the border. And they allow this situation to happen here, where people are now being moved around, aren't sure of where they're going to end up,” Sergio Arellano, analyst and executive director of Conserva mi Voto, speaks about the crisis on the US-Mexico border as thousands of migrants line up to cross the border just when Title 42 is due to expire

🎧Listen to more of Arellano’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

Mevlut Cavusoglu on US S-400 proposal: Turkiye not an American state

Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu said that a US proposal to send its S-400 air defense system to Ukraine is unacceptable and that Turkey is a sovereign state that makes its own strategic decisions regarding its own interests.

The US has been at odds with Turkiye over its decision to purchase Russia's S-400 air missile defense system since 2017, prompting Ankara to turn to Russia as an alternative, which was both advanced, flexible and more affordable than the US Patriot-2 system.

Relations between the two nations appear to have hit a new low, with Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu accusing the US of meddling in the country's forthcoming general elections.

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🇺🇸💸 White House and Congress in 'Mexican stand-off' over US government debt limit

Republicans and Democrats are no closer to a deal to end the US debt ceiling crisis despite House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's meeting with Joe Biden.

💬 "They're using this this pending deadline, which is somewhat artificial... as the last chance for the Republicans to negotiate anything,” said podcaster Mitch Roschelle. “I don't think it makes sense for Biden to use his own extreme measure by executive order, by fiat.”

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen is “not being helpful at this point” by warning that the federal government will run out of money on June 1, said David Tawil, co-founder of ProChain Capital. “She doesn't need to be running around, screaming about the debt ceiling.”

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🇵🇰 What is known so far about Pakistan's riots following Imran Khan's arrest?

On May 9, former PM Imran Khan was forcibly removed from a court hearing by security officers then bundled into a police vehicle in a move some called “absolutely unconstitutional and unlawful.”

This incident sparked violent protests in a number of Pakistani cities, leaving several people dead and many injured. Some experts hint that the root of the problem may lie in the collusion between the Pakistani military establishment and the US.

So why was the ex-PM detained and what is known about the unrest?

Sputnik explores

🇺🇸💻 House panel says CIA conspired with Biden's team to blame Russia for Hunter laptop story

💬 "Evidence suggests that senior Biden campaign officials, including now Secretary of State Antony Blinken, now Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, and now Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, took active measures to discredit the allegations about Hunter Biden by exploiting the national security credentials of former intelligence officials," the US House Judiciary Committee said in a press release.

The committee through its investigations found that Blinken was the impetus of a public letter in which 51 former intelligence officials stated that a story in the New York Post about Hunter Biden's laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

The report alleges that the public letter was a "political operation to help elect Vice President Biden in the 2020 election" aimed at giving then candidate Joe Biden a "talking point" to use in response to any attacks by his rival then-President Donald Trump.

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🇫🇷 Paris to block websites sharing news content of Sputnik, RT France

💬 "As part of measures to protect democracy we will also begin blocking websites that share content of media under international sanctions like the ones the EU imposed against RT France and Sputnik. This measure will complement our existing tools to fight the propaganda of the enemies of democracy," French digital minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

The draft law will be submitted to the Senate in early July, Barrot added.

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🗣️”So I think it's a very, very clear message to Macron and to France and to Europe to get back in line and to follow the leader and just 'don't mess with us,” Dr. Ken Hammond, writer and professor of East Asian and global history at New Mexico State University, discusses what the Republicans' resolution on Taiwan means for Europe?

🎧Listen to more of Hammond’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

Turkish energy company Botas will invest over $400 million in the construction of a floating liquefied natural gas storage facility equipped with a Floating Storage Regasification Unit

The total capacity of the floating storage will be 180,000 cubic meters (over 47 million gallons), with the project enjoying all customs and tax benefits, Turkish newspaper reported.

Botas is planning to implement the project via its foreign subsidiary, importing machinery and equipment worth $399 million, the report said, adding that the decision to build the floating regasification unit was made after the discovery of gas reserves in the Black Sea, which are currently at the trial extraction stage.

In 2020, a huge gas field with an estimated 540 billion cubic meters was discovered in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was the largest gas field in the country, adding that the total amount of natural gas in the Black Sea reached 710 billion cubic meters and was worth $1 trillion on the international markets.

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🔺 The US is creating a "Free Syria Army" with the participation of terrorist organizations to destabilize the country, Russian FM Lavrov said
🔺Taiwan will not let US 'blow up TSMC' in the event of a China War
🔺Turkish interior minister accuses US of meddling in presidential election

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

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📹 “The US shouldn’t be the policeman of the world”: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. highlights the failures of the Biden administration at home and abroad

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