Biden's blunt words for Putin spark outrage in Russia

"We are standing strong with Ukraine and we will stand with them. We are standing against a man who I have known well for many years, a brutal tyrant, and we will not walk away," said Biden at West Point, reminding of the crimes committed in Ukraine by the army sent there by Putin. TASS agency are outraged by Biden's words." MS

Ukrainian conscientious objectors off to Jail

 "Two Ukrainian conscientious objectors who refused the country’s mandatory mobilization during the war with Russia have been sentenced to three-year jail terms, according to a report in the Eurasia Review. Serhy Stadnitsky, a Protestant, and the other man, an unnamed Jehovah’s Witness, have appealed their convictions on religious grounds.

If convicted, the two would join Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector Dmytro Zelinsky who is serving a three-year sentence while waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Ukrainian Supreme Court on June 13.
The Ukrainian constitution and the United Nations Human Rights Committee call for non-military alternatives for those who object to military service on religious bases, but Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has argued that during wartime, the limited alternative services provided during peacetime do not exist.
Baptist conscientious objectors Ernest Pavlenko and Ilya Nikolenko were forcibly taken to a military unit in Zhytomyr Region. “Appropriate measures will be taken against them,” an official of the regional department of the Military Law-Enforcement Service told Forum 18. “Whether they will face criminal prosecution depends on how they behave.” Asked why they cannot be released and allowed to do an alternative civilian service as they have requested, the official responded: “Because there’s a war”.
On the morning of 30 April, Forum 18 asked Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience:
– why jail terms and trials continue for those who cannot serve in the military on grounds of conscience and who have expressed willingness to perform alternative civilian service;
– and what progress there has been on introducing an alternative civilian service where individuals can, for example, work in a hospital." 

EurasiaNews

Russian Troops Take Control Over Arkhangelskoe Settlement in DPR

"The Russian armed forces have taken control over the Arkhangelskoye settlement in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr have hit Ukrainian troops in a number of villages in the Donetsk People's Republic, and repulsed three attacks, eliminating up to 410 Ukrainian servicepeople." Sputnik

Biden's $320M Gaza Pier Has Detached & Drifted Onto Israeli Beach

"A section of the $320 million floating pier built and erected off Gaza's coast has broken off

and floated onto an Israeli beach. The Saturday mishap is the latest setback for the US humanitarian aid project, after three US troops were reported injured aboard the pier two days prior, including one critically.
The Times of Isreal's military correspondent Emanuel Fabian has reported that "An American vessel used to unload humanitarian aid from ships into the Gaza Strip via a floating pier disconnected from a small boat tugging it this morning due to stormy seas, leading it to get stuck on the coast of Ashdod, eyewitnesses say." ZeroHedge

Two UAVs strike Epicenter shopping mall, leading to fire, deaths, and injuries

"An explosion rocked Kharkiv at 4:02 p.m., with Mayor Ihor Terekhov reporting that a plane had crashed into a residential area. There were about 200 people in the Epicenter at the time of the Russian attack, according to Terekhov.

At 5:22 p.m., Terekhov, citing the director of the Epicenter, told reporters that about 15 employees of the hypermarket are unaccounted for." NV

Urgent meeting held at desolate Antarctica airbase amid fears over Russian control

"Officials from Chile have met at the bottom of the planet in a bid to bolster claims in

Antarctica as tensions escalate over Russian movement in the area.
Members of Chile‘s parliamentary defense committee flew to a desolate air base for a meeting billed as an assertion of national sovereignty.
Singling out Russia as posing such a threat, committee member Camila Flores said: “We are going to be sitting in Antarctica in an act of sovereignty, of safeguarding and supporting our national integrity in the face of any threats.”
They revealed little about their talks at the glacier-filled base, beyond saying they addressed “the prevailing geopolitical conditions” on the white continent that has vast mineral resources, fresh water reserves and no government." MS