Sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are like a declaration of war, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday while reiterating stern warnings against proposals for NATO to declare a no-fly zone.
"These sanctions that are being imposed are akin to a declaration of war but thank God it has not come to that," Putin said at a meeting with employees of the state airline Aeroflot.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused the West of "economic banditry" and threatened to retaliate, without giving details.
The war, which began with Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, has sent nearly 1.5 million refugees fleeing westward into the European Union, prompting calls from Kyiv and other capitals for NATO to impose a no-fly zone to halt the Russian invasion and airstrikes on civilian areas.
Putin warned Western powers against imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, an operation that has been demanded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but rejected by NATO.
"Any movement in this direction will be considered by us as participation of the respective country in an armed conflict," Putin said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. President Joe Biden and European countries have repeatedly ruled out creating a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine from Russia's aerial bombardment.
They fear such a step would dramatically increase the risk of direct confrontation with Russia and lead to a wider war in Europe.
Putin also dismissed rumors that Russia is planning to declare martial law with his country's military incursion in Ukraine in its second week.
"Martial law should only be introduced in cases where there is external aggression ... we are not experiencing that at the moment and I hope we won't," Putin said.
Some Russians worry that, should the authoritarian leader impose martial law, it would lead to a further crackdown on political dissent and the media. There are reports of Russians already having left the country out of fear Putin could take such a step.
Putin also repeated his conditions for an end to Russia's war on Ukraine, including the country's demilitarization and that it become a neutral buffer between Europe and Russia.
According to Putin, the "destruction of military infrastructure" in Ukraine "as part of the operation ... is practically complete," specifically mentioning weapons and ammunition depots.
Russian forces pressed on with their assault on Ukraine, where planned civilian evacuations from two besieged cities were called off. Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the failure to provide safe passage to civilians fleeing the two bombarded cities, on the 10th day of a war that has fueled Europe's biggest humanitarian disaster in decades and provoked unprecedented international sanctions on Moscow amid warnings of a global recession.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its units had opened humanitarian corridors near the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, which have been encircled by its troops. But in Mariupol, the city council said Russia was not observing the cease-fire and it asked residents to return to shelters and await further information on evacuation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it understood that evacuations of civilians from both Mariupol and Volnovakha would no longer start on Saturday.
Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian "nationalists" of preventing civilians from leaving, RIA news agency reported.
The southeastern port has endured heavy bombardment, a sign of its strategic value to Moscow due to its position between Russian-backed separatist-held eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
"This night the shelling was harder and closer," a staff member from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said, according to the aid agency. There was still no power, water, heating or mobile phone links and food was scarce.
The Ukrainian government had said the plan was to evacuate around 200,000 people from Mariupol and 15,000 from Volnovakha.
