President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States would not provide F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine had requested to fight Russia, as Russian forces claimed a series of victories in the country’s east. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov will meet President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday amid a dispute between Kyiv’s allies over the supply of fighter jets for the war against Russia, Reuters reported. Ukraine wants to advance Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16 after securing deliveries of main battle tanks last week, Ukraine’s assistant defense minister said on Friday.

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 342:

07:34The Ministry of Defense of Belarus announced on Tuesday, Reuters reports, that Russia and Belarus have begun a week-long training exercise to train personnel for the joint command of a regional force group.

The training is part of preparations for joint exercises that the two countries will organize in Russia in September, the department said.

A brief summary of recent events:

• Biden says no to providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine Joe Biden announced on Monday that he will not send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as part of its war against Russia, AFP reports.
• Biden said on Monday he would visit Poland but did not know when, after US media reported last week that the White House leader was considering a trip to Europe around February 24, when Russia’s war in Ukraine ends, Reuters reported.
• “In principle, nothing is forbidden,” says Macron. French President Emmanuel Macron was asked in The Hague on Monday about the possibility of sending fighter jets to Ukraine to help it fight the Russian invasion, cautiously answering that “nothing is prohibited in principle”, according to AFP.
• Poland is ready to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets in coordination with NATO, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said in Telegram, Ukrainian Pravda reports.
• More than 60 Bradley fighting vehicles were loaded onto the cargo ship Arc Integrity, which is carrying military equipment to Europe, and left the port of North Charleston, South Carolina, to be delivered to Ukraine and used against the Russians, who have recently invaded the neighboring country. February.
• Russia has deployed additional troops and military equipment in Kursk Oblast, which borders Ukraine, Kursk Oblast Governor Roman Starovoit said on Monday, as quoted by the Russian state news agency Interfax.
• “Constant” fighting in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is “real hell” as Russian troops try to take control of the Kostyantynivka-Bakhmut highway, a Ukrainian commander said in an interview with Ukrainian television on Monday, CNN. However, Russia was forced to send airborne troops after Wagner’s group suffered heavy losses in men and weapons.
• Ukraine plans to spend 20 billion Ukrainian hryvnias ($545 million) to acquire drones — or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — this year, the country’s defense minister said on Facebook on Monday, CNN reported.
• Norway plans to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine “as soon as possible”, Norway’s defense minister told AFP on Monday, suggesting the deliveries could take place by the end of March.
• France and Australia have reached an agreement to produce thousands of 155 mm projectiles to be supplied to Ukraine to support it in its war against Russia, ministers Sébastien Lecornu and Richard Marles announced on Monday, AFP reported.
• VIDEO A group of Russian soldiers was destroyed by a weapon that has been compared on social media to a “death ray” from sci-fi movies due to the visible trajectory of the projectile fired.
• Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, will never be part of Ukraine, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday during a speech detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv, Reuters reported.

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Events related to the war since the 341st day were broadcast live on HotNews.ro