OREANDA-NEWS. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Washington and its allies do not want the conflict to expand to their countries and therefore will not close the sky over Ukraine. It is reported by RIA Novosti.

“We spoke about the no-fly zone earlier, and for the sake of clarity, I repeat that all our efforts are aimed at the speedy end of this war, this suffering. What we do not want is its expansion, expansion into our countries, our own territory,” Blinken said during a visit to Latvia.

At the same time, he recalled that a few days ago he sent a request to the US Congress for emergency assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $10 billion.

“And this $10 billion, which I am sure Congress will release very quickly, will go to additional security assistance to Ukraine, will go to humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and will go to further efforts to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank,” Blinken added.

Also at a joint press conference with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, Blinken said that there is a "huge disproportion" in the number of Russian and Ukrainian forces. And he also admitted that the Russian side has the opportunity to continue to "grind" the Ukrainian army.

Earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy recorded a video message to the leaders of the Western countries, in which he said that the country is waiting for "the clearing of the sky either with the force that you have" or with its own forces when allocating combat aircraft and air defense equipment.