'It's Best not to Mess with us', Warns Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that his country had no intentions of a large scale conflict in the eatern Ukraine region. However, he  sent a warning by stating that Russia was a leading nuclear power of the world.

"Thank God, I think no one is thinking of unleashing a large-scale conflict with Russia. I want to remind you that Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers," Putin said while on a visit to a Kremlin-sponsored youth camp near Moscow.

"It's best not to mess with us," he added, reports Los Angeles Times.

Putin also compared the present battle of the Russian separatists with the Ukrainian army with the Soviet citizen's fight against the Nazi attack of Leningrad during World War II.

Putin's visit to the youth camp is intended to garner public support for Russia for the  military action in Ukraine, which has resulted in international isolation and harsh economic sanctions.

Putin's defiant stance overlaps with his proposal to the rebels to permit Ukrainian forces who are surrounded in the southeastern town of IIiyovaisk to retreat to Ukraine territory.

However, Ukraine said that Putin's statement proves that the rebels were acting upon Moscow's orders, reports Reuters.

After NATO released satellite images of Russian troops crossing into southeastern Ukraine, Obama warned Russia that harsher sanctions were imminent.

The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, too said that the European Union might impose more sanctions on Russia.

"When one country sends military forces into another country without the agreement and against the will of another country, that is called an intervention and is clearly unacceptable," he said, according to Reuters.

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier  said that the border violations that were seen  in the past two days create  fear that the situation was getting out of  control.