Germany warned Russia Thursday of long-term damage to its interests if it continued to violate international law with its seizure of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

"If Russia continues its course of the last weeks, it would not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine," she told the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

"It would not only change the relationship of the European Union as a whole to Russia. No, it would also, and I am firmly convinced of this, massively damage Russia both economically and politically."

AFP