US President Joe Biden has said that Washington will not provide Ukraine with missile launch systems that can strike Russia.

This coincides with the Kremlin's announcement that President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his country is ready to facilitate the passage of grain shipments from Ukrainian ports in coordination with Ankara.

Biden's recent statements came after US press reports stated that Washington had provided Ukraine with long-range missile systems that Ukrainian officials consider necessary to counter the Russian attack in the Donbass region.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian National Security Council, welcomed the US president's statements and said that Washington's announcement not to provide Kyiv with missiles that can reach Russian territory is a "rational" decision.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart on Monday that Moscow is ready to work with Ankara to secure free shipping of goods, including grain, from Ukraine by sea.

In a phone call with Erdogan, Putin expressed "the Russian side's readiness to facilitate the unimpeded sea transportation of goods, in coordination with Turkish partners. This also applies to grain exports coming from Ukrainian ports."

And the Russian Interfax news agency reported that the presidents of the two countries also discussed the safety of navigation in the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov.

It stated that Erdogan assured Putin of his country's readiness to host a meeting in Istanbul between Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations, and the need to take steps that would re-establish the basis for peace between Moscow and Kiev.


European support

On the other hand, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, affirmed the Council's support for Ukraine and the start of reconstruction and provision of the required liquidity for that.

And Michel said - before the start of an extraordinary meeting of the Council today, Monday - that reaching a consensus on sanctions against Russia is not easy, noting that there are different views on the matter.

For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she expects to reach an agreement on the new package of sanctions against Russia within the next 48 hours.

But the draft final statement of the summit of European Union leaders, which took place today, Monday in Brussels, showed the summit's failure to agree on the Russian oil embargo.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna stressed during her visit to Kyiv on Monday that France "will continue and strengthen" arms shipments to Ukraine.

She said - during a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba - that French President Emmanuel Macron "informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of his decision to continue and even strengthen" military support to Ukraine.


Journalist killed

In a related context, Lugansk Governor Sergey Gaidai announced the killing of a French journalist who was covering the evacuation of civilians in the region.

Gaidai stated that the evacuations were officially stopped, accusing the Russian forces of shooting at an armored vehicle that was evacuating 10 people, but shrapnel penetrated the vehicle and hit the journalist in the neck, which led to his death and the injury of a policeman in the attack.

On the ground, Roman Vlasenko, the governor of Severodonetsk, the largest city in Donbass, denied the Russian forces' control of the city, and said that the Russian army was able to enter it and control only an area of ​​about 100 meters without succeeding in making much progress, as he described it.

A statement by the Ukrainian General Staff also said that the Russian forces began assembling their forces in Lyman, located in the Donetsk region, in preparation for the attack on the adjacent city of Slaviansk, while the Russian forces continued to focus their attacks on Lugansk to besiege the cities of Severodonetsk and Lyschansk and cut off the supply route to the two cities.

Alexander Falkul, head of the regional military administration in the Kryvyi Rih region in southeastern Ukraine, announced the killing of 63 Russian soldiers, the destruction of 19 military units and the downing of two planes in the Kryvyi Rih region on the border with Kherson Province.

Al-Jazeera correspondent reported the continuation of mutual shelling on the towns east of Mykolaiv and close to the contact lines between the Kherson and Mykolaiv provinces.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russian forces targeted a shipbuilding factory in the city of Mykolaiv with artillery.

Konashenkov confirmed that two command and control centers of the Ukrainian army were targeted by high-precision missiles, and the Russian forces targeted with two missiles the Zatoka bridge linking the western and eastern parts of Odessa, located above the mouth of the Dniester River.

The Southern Operations Command said that the bombing damaged nearby houses in the area, without recording human casualties, and the successive strikes on this bridge also led to its disruption and its out of service.