Ukraine war.. Putin justifies bombing Ukrainian energy facilities and the White House: Biden does not intend to hold a meeting with him

The White House confirmed Friday that US President Joe Biden has "no intention" of holding a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin now, because he has shown no indication of his willingness to end the war in Ukraine.

On the other hand, Putin described the massive Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure as "necessary".

This comes while the Turkish presidency stressed the necessity of quickly establishing a ground for negotiation between Russia and Ukraine for the benefit of all parties, while the German Chancellor called on Putin, in a call, to provide an opportunity for a solution through withdrawal from Ukraine.

"He (Biden) has no intention of holding talks with Mr. Putin right now, because he has shown no inclination to show interest in any dialogue of any kind," White House national security adviser John Kirby told reporters.

On Thursday, Biden said during a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, that he would be willing to talk to Putin about finding a solution to the issue of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, if the Russian president was "looking for a way to end the war."

Kirby added that the United States and its allies will continue to provide support to Ukraine, to enable it to defend itself and mitigate the effects of the war on the rest of the world.

Kirby indicated that the West is not pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to enter into talks with Russia, while Ukrainian forces are achieving successive victories over Moscow's forces.

For its part, the US State Department said that the United States will not negotiate with Russia without Ukrainian participation, and that it continues to support Kiev.

In the same context, White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said that Russia is trying to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, depriving the Ukrainian people of heating and other important services as winter approaches.

Negotiations failed

On the other hand, the Kremlin announced that attempts to negotiate with Washington, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had failed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the US president stipulated Russia's withdrawal from Ukraine, which is not possible, and the military operation is continuing, he said.

Peskov added that the best way to settle the situation in Ukraine is diplomacy, noting that Washington still refuses to recognize the new lands of Russia, and this complicates the search for common ground for discussion, according to the Kremlin.

In Ankara, the Turkish presidency reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed, during a call with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the need to quickly establish a negotiating ground between Russia and Ukraine, in the interest of all parties.

'inevitable' bombing

In a related context, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the intensified Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure are necessary and inevitable, and that it is a response to the Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure sites.

This came in a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Schultz.

The Kremlin said that the Russian president called on the German chancellor to reconsider Germany's position on the situation in Ukraine.

In the phone call, Putin drew Schultz's attention to the destructive approach of the West, which supplies Kyiv with weapons and trains the military, according to the Kremlin's expression.

Putin also assured Schultz that Russian forces had long refrained from striking Ukraine, and that the current measures were coercive.

According to the Kremlin, Putin stressed the need for a transparent investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline incident, with Russia's participation.

On the other hand, a spokesman for the German government said that Schultz condemned - in contact with Putin - the Russian bombing of Ukrainian civilian facilities.

According to the German spokesman, Schultz urged Putin to resolve the conflict with Ukraine through diplomacy, and to withdraw Russian forces from Ukraine.

Spanish missiles

Militarily, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that his country had received the first shipment of "Hawk" air defense systems from Spain on Friday.

Ukrainian soldiers are already being trained to use these missiles in Spain.

This medium-range anti-aircraft system, which was created in the USA, was put into service in the early 1960s and has been upgraded over and over again.

The Hawk system has already been phased out in most NATO countries.

Battles in the east and south

On the ground, the Ukrainian General Staff reported the continuation of fighting between its forces and the Russian forces in Kherson and on the outskirts of Mykolaiv Province (in the south of the country), where the shelling was renewed on the water stations in Ochakov, while the Kremlin responded to the US President's requirement to withdraw from Ukraine to end the war.

The Ukrainian army accused the Russian forces of launching 30 raids on the positions of its forces, and more than 35 missile attacks on populated areas at the contact lines.

In Zaporizhia, the Ukrainian military said the Russians launched a missile attack targeting infrastructure and industry.

And the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command warned of a major Russian missile attack on southern Ukraine in the coming hours.

For its part, the Ukrainian Nikopol region authorities in the Dnipro province (center) said that the Russians bombed the area at dawn Friday with more than 40 artillery shells targeting empty residential sites.

The Ukrainian army confirmed that 3 civilians were killed and 7 wounded in Russian bombing of Kherson province (south of the country).

With the continued Russian bombing of Kherson, the Ukrainian authorities appealed to the residents of the province of the need to flee to safer areas, and confirmed that they provided buses and trains to transport them, and gave priority in the first stage to the elderly, women and children.

In Donetsk (east), the Ukrainian Staff Command stated that it had repelled several Russian attempts to advance there and in Luhansk as well, and added that 5 Russian missile strikes targeted infrastructure in Donetsk and Kharkiv provinces.

The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, Sergei Gaidai, confirmed that his country's forces are only a few kilometers away from the city of Kremina, and they are also advancing towards the city of Svatova.

On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that more than 500 aircraft and helicopters of Ukrainian forces have been destroyed since the start of the military operation in Ukraine.

It added that 3 missile and ammunition depots of Ukrainian forces were targeted in the Zaporizhia region, and that a Russian fighter shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 over Donetsk.

And the Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the Kievsi region in the city of Donetsk was hit by missile strikes from the Ukrainian side on Friday morning.

The pro-Russian local authorities said that the bombing killed and wounded civilians, and damaged residential buildings, and that one of the missiles targeted a police station.

On Thursday, the city center of Donetsk was subjected to intense missile strikes, killing two people, one of them a local policeman, and burning a number of cars.

In the same context, the Belarusian border guards announced the downing of a Ukrainian drone that was used for reconnaissance and photographing the Belarusian border areas with Ukraine.

The border guards said in a statement that the drone was discovered at a depth of 100 meters inside Belarusian territory, and it was shot down and seized.