Airlines have been warned to avoid the airspace over Crimea after it voted to split from Ukraine and was annexed by Russia.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said there were "serious risks to the safety of international civil flights" after Russia said it intended to take over air traffic control over the peninsula.

"The Agency draws the aviation communities' attention to the possible existence of serious risks to the safety of international civil flights" EASA said.

It adds that "consideration should be given to measures to avoid the airspace and circumnavigate the Simferopol FIR with alternative routings".

The warning came as Russia summoned the German Ambassador to Moscow over remarks made by the country's Finance Minister.

"We consider such pseudo-historical references by the German minister provocative" it said in a statement.

"The comparisons by him are a gross manipulation of historic facts".

Wolfgang Schaeuble said Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region were reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's aggression in 1938 that led to the annexation of German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia.