Russian military aircraft in country's airspace "to provoke war": Ukrainian PM

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Saturday that Russian military aircraft had crossed the country's airspace seven times "to provoke Ukraine to start a war."

"Russian military aircraft today overnight crossed and violated Ukrainian airspace seven times. The only reason is to provoke Ukraine to start a war," he told journalists at a briefing in Rome, following a meeting with Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Ukraine's acting defence minister Myhailo Koval said the Ukrainian military will fight if Russia sends in troops under the guise of a peace-keeping operation, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported on Saturday.

"The United Nations has given no such (peace-keeping) mandate to the Russians," the agency quoted Koval as saying. "Everybody is already fed up with Russia's games with peace-keeping."

"If they come, they'll get what's coming to them: we will conduct combat operations."