❗️ Over 200 Ukrainian nationalists have been eliminated, Russian MoD says

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

▪️Six Ukrainian drones and three Tochka U missiles intercepted by Russian air defences

▪️ Russian forces destroy 38 Ukrainian military targets, including fuel depot, in high-precision strikes

▪️ Russian aviation hits 22 Ukrainian military objects, including warehouse of missile and artillery weapons

▪️ Missile forces destroy Ukrainian Buk-M1 missile system, Mi-24 helicopter

❗️ EU countries likely to approve phased embargo on Russian oil as early as next week, reports say

⚡️🎥 "Every day they were tortured, executed, beaten": Nikolay Tsyganok, one of the organisers of the 2014 referendum in Starobelsk for secession from Ukraine, speaks about how his son Yuri and other captives were tortured by the Aidar Batallion.

❗️ Pentagon: US commences training with Ukrainian Armed Forces on key systems at military installations in Germany

❗️Pentagon: US has no plans to train forces inside Ukraine, has option of virtual training for forces in country

❗️ State Department: US aware of reports that American citizen was killed fighting in Ukraine

❗️ Lavrov: Russia not threatening anyone with nuclear war

⚡️🗣 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks:

▪️ Russia does not consider itself at war against NATO

▪️ We have no doubt that activities of US biological laboratories in Ukraine should be investigated

▪️Western sanctions destroyed almost all food chains, which became one of causes of global food crisis

▪️ Majority of Russian partners switched to ruble payments for gas

▪️ Russia does not use mercenaries in Ukraine

⚡️ Russia's MoD delivers statement on Ukraine:

▪️ The Kiev regime has prepared in advance another sophisticated provocation to discredit the Russian Armed Forces before the international community;

▪️ An artillery battery (consisting of three D-30 howitzers) has been deployed near a water intake in the Donetsk People's Republic by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to provoke retaliatory fire from the Russian Armed Forces. The destruction of the water intake would leave 27 settlements with a total population of over 15,000 without water supply;

▪️ Kiev plans to use this provocation in the near future to accuse Russian servicemen of committing atrocities against civilians. These claims would be picked up by Ukrainian and Western media;

▪️ Such actions by Kiev once again demonstrate an inhuman attitude towards the fate of its own citizens and show a complete disregard for all norms of morality and international humanitarian law.

❗️Russia cannot rely on the West in matters of strategic importance, the Russian Foreign Minister said

🇺🇸Lockheed Martin is going to expand its production of Javelin anti-tank missile systems even before the Pentagon orders more given the urgency of the situation in Ukraine, Chairman and CEO James Taiclet said

The Biden administration has provided Ukraine with $3.4 billion in security assistance - including more than 5,500 Javelins - since Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February, the Pentagon said in a release on April 22.

❗️🇺🇸🇪🇺US and EU representatives met in Washington, DC on Friday to discuss prospects of diversifying natural gas supplies to Europe

🇺🇸Pelosi: “People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not.”

Elon Musk has also reacted to Biden's new disinformation bureau

📣📣 President Biden's new initiative has sparked controversy throughout the government.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday vowed to resist the Biden administration’s new “Orwellian” disinformation bureau, insisting a “Ministry of Truth” cannot exist in the United States.

“They want to be able to put out false narratives without people being able to speak out and fight back,” DeSantis said. “But we’re not going to let Biden get away with this one, so we will be fighting back.”

The hashtag “Ministry of Truth” was trending on Twitter Thursday as critics compared the new board to George Orwell’s “1984” novel. Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⁉️Biden was seen smirking as his staff (again) gently asked the reporters to leave, preventing him from taking questions

🥺💔A heartbreaking funeral was held this Friday in New York City. Family, friends, and thousands of fellow firefighters gathered Friday to bid a final farewell to fallen FDNY Firefighter Timothy Klein.

“The amazing thing about Timmy is that he accomplished so much in such a short time,” the Rev. William Sweeny said. “In fact, he was supposed to be in a wedding party tomorrow at a wedding of his dear friends that’s gonna be right here in this church. And they’re gonna set up a memorial in a very special way to thank Timmy for all the things that he did.”

As many as 20,000 people were in attendance, with a massive gathering of firefighters lining the streets outside the church.

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🇺🇸🔈Meet the head of Biden's new "Ministry of Truth," Nina Jankowicz, who is in charge of defining the "truth" and "fakes" in the US

On TikTok, she calls herself the "disinformation Mary Poppins"

🚀Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship – completing this booster’s second flight in 21 days, SpaceX says

Watch the liftoff