The U.S. will not give Ukraine F-16 fighter jets, according to President Joe Biden, as Kyiv increases the number of weapons it needs to be able to better oust Russian forces from occupied territory.

Russian soldiers, according to Denis Pushilin, the Donetsk leader designated by the Kremlin, are pressing close to Vugledar, a strategically significant hamlet south of Donetsk city.

Russian soldiers attempted to increase their hold on land in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk as fighting raged on at strategic sites along the long front.

Kyiv, though, denied the assertion while admitting that the combat was fierce. "The enemy doesn't count its people and, despite numerous casualties, maintains a high intensity of attacks," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Biden announced at the White House that he opposed sending American combat jets to Ukraine. When questioned by reporters at the White House if he supported deploying F-16s or other aircraft after the U.S., Germany, and other nations agreed to increase the Ukrainian armament by supplying heavy combat tanks, he responded, "No".

Despite the fact that Ukraine has not yet formally asked its allies for modern fighter planes for the conflict, European leaders suggested they were open to the notion.

Analysts predict that both Ukraine and Russia will make big offensive moves in the coming months, and Western aircraft could bolster Kyiv's power given that its air force has been severely weakened by the conflict's 11-month duration.

Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, stated on Monday that he would not completely rule out providing fighter planes to Ukraine but issued a warning about the possibility of a military escalation. The proposal of sending Dutch F-16s to Ukraine has already been raised by Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, with whom Macron spoke.

A partnership between France and Australia to jointly develop 155mm shells for Kyiv's army was revealed on Monday. This is because Ukraine's artillery munitions stocks are severely low. Sebastien Lecornu, France's defense minister, stated that a number of thousand 155mm rounds will be produced jointly.

In response to the unattributed weekend airstrikes that hit an Iranian military sector location in Isfahan that was apparently producing drones, Tehran summoned a Ukrainian diplomat on Monday to express its displeasure with comments made by a Zelensky assistant. Attack drones from Iran have been provided to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Iran's foreign ministry branded the remarks by Ukraine's charge d'affaires in Tehran "strange and biased" and said it hoped "such positions will not be repeated." The charge d'affaires was reportedly summoned to give "an official and immediate explanation."