Washington: The United States will neither engage in hostilities in Ukraine nor establish a no-fly zone over the country, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told the CNN broadcaster.

"Well, the President's [Joe Biden] been very clear about the fact that we won't have troops engaged in combat with Russia and Ukraine in order to affect or put into place a no fly zone," Austin said.

"We'd have to control the skies and that would mean that we'd have to engage Russian aircraft we'd also have to take out Russian and aircraft and aircraft systems in Ukraine, in Belarus, and also in Russia. So that would mean that we're in combat with Russia. And these are two nuclear powered countries. That nobody wants to see. It's not good for the region. It's not good for the world," Austin added.