The Russian president's decree making it easier to get Russian citizenship for people from the occupied areas of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a deliberate attempt to escalate aggression and the pressure on the Ukrainian leadership, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has said.

"[Vladimir] Putin is creating legal conditions for an official application of the Russian armed forces against Ukraine ... This is delated to the Russian legislation allowing the use of armed forces for protecting Russian citizens outside Russia," Turchynov was quoted by the NSDC as saying.

"There can only be one response to Russia's actions: to strengthen our defense potential, and the relevant international reaction to the Kremlin's actions - [that of] increasing sanctions pressure on the aggressor state," Turchynov said.