A close ally of Vladimir Putin has claimed that Moscow is in a "military confrontation" with the US and Britain.
Nikolai Patrushev says Russia is now at war with the West
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev - who is seen as one of the hard-line influences on the tyrant - has claimed that the conflict in Ukraine is now a war between Russia and NATO.
Patrushev has accused the West of trying to "pull Russia apart" by supplying weapons to Kyiv.
In an interview with the Argumenty i Fakti newspaper, he said: "The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv - this is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain.
"We are not at war with Ukraine, because, by definition, we cannot have hatred towards ordinary Ukrainians. Ukrainian traditions are close to the inhabitants of Russia, just as the heritage of Russian people is inseparable from the culture of Ukrainians.
"The Westerners' plans are to continue to pull Russia apart, and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed Patrushev's remarks as he claimed that the US and NATO are already part of the Ukraine conflict.
He said: "De facto they have already become an indirect party to this conflict, pumping Ukraine with weapons, technologies, intelligence information and so on."