Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reports that Sergei Glazyev, a prominent and often outspoken adviser to Vladimir Putin, has called for a no-fly zone to be imposed on Ukraine and warned of full scale war against Russia.

Glazyev, who is on US, EU and Canadian sanctions lists, warned that Russia would "be legally entitled to support" Russian speakers in Ukraine who would not support closer integration with Europe as long ago as September 2013, foreshadowing Russia's support for separatism this year.

"I want to remind you of Churchill's words*: "Those, who have to choose between shame and war, and choose shame, get war and shame at the same time". This is a modern war. This does not mean that we need to move our tanks on Kiev, but, at the least, we are entitled to stop the genocide of the population.

For this it'd be enough to close the skies and use the same mechanism for the neutralisation of military hardware that the Americans used in Libya, who initially closed the skies, then shot up armoured vehicles, artillery and aircraft from the air, and so rendered the regime they were fighting unfit for combat. We still have the capability to do this, there will be no such possibility within six months."

"Look at the trend - if in December, the Nazis had 2 thousand people in Kiev; in February - 20 thousand. In May they already have 50 thousand together with the military and by mid-summer they will have 100 thousand; in September they will have 200 thousand; by the end of the year they will call up 500 thousand people to arms", said Sergei Glazyev and added that Ukraine is removing military hardware from storage.

"We've got an all-powerful military machine aimed at us, packed full of Nazis, ideologically loaded against Russia... The ultimate goal of all the action is war with Russia. We will not be able to lose Donbass to preserve peace, because the next goal, which is being declared, is Crimea."