President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Western sanctions against Russia amounted to a declaration of war, and that any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would have devastating global implications.

Putin stated again that his goals were to preserve Russian-speaking communities by demilitarizing and de-Nazifying the country so that Russia’s former Soviet neighbor remained neutral and no longer posed a threat to the country.

Ukraine and Western countries have regarded this as a spurious excuse for the invasion he started on February 24 and have levied a slew of sanctions aimed at isolating Russia.

Any attempt by another country to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, he added, would be deemed a step into a military conflict by Russia. He claimed that such a move would be disastrous for Europe and the rest of the world.

The NATO military alliance has turned down Kyiv’s proposal for a no-fly zone, claiming that it would escalate the crisis beyond Ukraine, perhaps pitting the US against Russia.

When asked about allegations that Russian conscripts were being utilized in Ukraine, Putin stated that no such conscripts had been used and that the military operation was proceeding according to plan.

Official evaluations from the United States and the United Kingdom contradicted this description. On Thursday, British military intelligence stated Russia’s push on Kiev had made little progress and encountered stiff resistance.

Putin dismissed fears that Russia would be forced to declare martial law or a state of emergency. He explained that such a measure was only taken when a major internal or foreign threat existed.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said the West was acting like a thief by cutting economic ties over the Ukraine crisis, but that Russia was far too huge to be isolated because the globe was far more than just the United States and Europe.