© Sputnik / Mikhail Klementiev
"When I look at this latest incident in the Black Sea, all what's happening in Donbass - everything indicates that the current Ukrainian leadership is not interested in resolving this situation at all, especially in a peaceful way," Putin told reporters during a media conference in the aftermath of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
"This is a party of war and as long as they stay in power, all such tragedies, all this war will go on."
"The Kiev authorities are craving war primarily for two reasons - to rip profits from it, and to blame all their own domestic failures on it and actions of some sort of "aggressors."
"As they say, for one it's war, for other - it's mother. That's reason number one why the Ukrainian government is not interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict," Putin stated.
"Second, you can always use war to justify your failures in economy, social policy. You can always blame things on an aggressor."
This approach to statecraft by the Ukrainian authorities deeply concerns Russia's President. "We care about Ukraine because Ukraine is our neighbor," Putin said.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been soaring after the incident in the Kerch Strait. Last weekend three Ukrainian Navy ships tried to break through the strait without seeking the proper permission from Russia. Following a tense stand-off and altercation with Russia's border guard, the vessels were seized and their crews detained over their violation of the country's border.
While Kiev branded the incident an act of "aggression" on Moscow's part, Russia believes the whole Kerch affair to be a deliberate "provocation" which allowed Kiev to declare a so-called "partial" martial law ahead of Ukraine's presidential election.
Instead, this event was orchestrated and arranged by Deep State elements within the USA who want to provoke WWIII with Russia, in order to make huge profits (or so they calculate.) It came on the eve of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, at which Trump was supposed to meet with Putin and defuse tensions, and on the counsel of the Deep State advisors closely surrounding him, Trump cancelled the meeting.
The Ukrainians know the Russians will not hold their ships indefinitely, because the Russians want to make friends with Ukraine, which the neo-Nazis running Ukraine do not want (so they have the upper hand psychologically,) and so the Russians will release the ships and let them go home soon. (Which I think would be a mistake. Russia should put the crews on trial, convict them, then cut a deal with Ukraine to release them and their ships in exchange for releasing Russian journalists and others held by the Ukrainians.)
Remember, the USA gave Ukraine two surplus Coast Guard armed cutters a couple of months ago for free, and perhaps part of the deal was that Ukraine would use two of its ships to provoke the Russians to seize them, and give the West an excuse for more sanctions and more propaganda about "Russian aggression." Or, when the need arose, to sabotage a prospective meeting between Trump and Putin.