INTERNATIONAL: Russia's President Vladimir Putin has met with female flight crew on Saturday,March 5, ahead of International Women's Day.

Putin has spoken with crew, trainees and employees at the Aeroflot Aviation School in a suburb of Moscow in the run-up to the March 8 celebration.

He has said on Saturday that Western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war and has warned that any attempt to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would lead to catastrophic consequences for the world.

Putin has reiterated that his aims were to defend Russian- speaking communities through the "demilitarization and de-Nazification" of the country so that Russia's former Soviet neighbor became neutral and no longer threatened Russia.

^{PHOTO: VARIOUS OF RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN TALKING TO FLIGHT PERSONNEL AND STUDENTS AT THE AEROFLOT AVIATION SCHOOL}