Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that he had informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the specific and urgent needs of Ukrainian army and defense sector.

"Yes, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and I had a very good conversation a week ago in Brussels. I shared with him some very specific and urgent needs of Ukrainian army and defense sector. I have no evidence that the United States does not believe it is worth helping Ukraine, but, of course, it all depends on details and further behavior of Russia in these circumstances," Kuleba said at an online news conference on Tuesday.

The foreign minister also named three big steps that Ukraine is proposing to its partners to take right now in order to discourage Russia from further escalating tensions.

"We call on our friends and partners to be loud in support of Ukraine not only in communications with Ukraine, but even more importantly in their direct bilateral communications with Russia. Moscow should hear from every corner that Ukraine will not be alone. Moscow should hear from everyone corner that not two parties - Ukraine and Russia - are responsible for the escalation, but only Moscow is undertaking a significant buildup of troops, only Moscow is escalating the situation," he said.

Kuleba said that the cost of preventing further escalation of Russia will always be lower than the cost of stopping it and mitigating its consequences.

"And I hope that our friends and partners understand this. It is much more effective to make Moscow clearly understand that a new stage of aggression will have grave consequences for Russia: international isolation and painful economic sanctions," he said.

According to the minister, this is precisely why, addressing the EU Foreign Affairs Council, he urged his colleagues to start considering the possibility of introducing a new round of sectoral sanctions against Russia.

"The third step. We ask partners to discuss how they could help Ukraine defend itself in a worst-case scenario. This includes deepening cooperation with Ukraine in the field of security and defense," Kuleba said.