The Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the escalation of the conflict in Donbass had been provoked by Ukraine. 

According to him, what is happening is a consequence of the fact that Kiev needs to «knock out» money from abroad. 

‘As for today's aggravation, our position is well known: it was provoked from the Ukrainian side. On Friday last week, actual hostilities started. 

On Sunday, the Ukrainian so-called volunteer units seized one of the strong points of the opposition and penetrated 200 meters into the territory controlled by the militia. On Sunday again, they were knocked out of there,’ he said at a press conference in Budapest, after a meeting with the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

Asked by journalists about the causes of the deterioration of the situation, the President noted that there were ‘several reasons’. 

‘The first reason lies in the fact that the Ukrainian authorities today need money, and it is best to knock money out of the European Union, individual European countries, from the United States and international financial institutions, exposing themselves as a victim of aggression,’he emphasized.