Russia regards itself to be at war due to the West's intervention on Ukraine's side and cannot allow a state to exist on its borders that has shown itself ready to use any method to seize control of Crimea, the Kremlin said on Friday, Reuters reports.
The comments from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to the Russian publication "Arguments and Facts", some of his most hawkish on Ukraine yet, followed a large-scale overnight Russian attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
"I am convinced of that. And everyone should understand this, for their internal motivation."
Russian officials, from President Vladimir Putin down, have gradually started to use the word "war" from time to time having long insisted previously that the term be avoided.
Kyiv says Russia's annexation was an illegal land grab and that it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from its soil. It is also determined to return the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia took from it in 2014.
