BUENOS AIRES, December 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that Kiev is using war in southeastern Ukraine to cover up its domestic policy failures.

"It is always easier to cover up one’s failures in economic and social policy with war," Putin said, explaining the actions of the Ukrainian government. "It’s not their fault, it’s the aggressor’s fault - the aggressor is to blame for the impoverishment of the people, and that the state budget is barely scraping by. One always needs to beg for money from the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and other sponsors to shift the blame and the pressure to future generations," he added.

The Russian leader noted that in the context of provocations, like the Kerch Strait incident, it is easier for the Ukrainian government to continue its policy aimed at impoverishing the people and the state.

 

Kerch Strait incident

 

On November 27, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, endorsed President Pyotr Poroshenko’s decree on imposing a 30-day martial law from November 28 in the Vinnitsa, Lugansk, Nikolayevsk, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkov, Chernigov, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, as well as Ukraine’s territorial waters in the Sea of Azov. Initially, Poroshenko sought to impose martial law for 60 days, but this put into question holding the March presidential election and sparked a public outcry.

The pretext for the decision to declare martial law was an incident in the Kerch Strait on November 25, when three Ukrainian warships, en route from Odessa to Mariupol, illegally crossed Russia’s state border, entered Russia’s territorial waters and started performing dangerous maneuvers.

Despite the repeated warnings and demands to stop, the Ukrainian vessels continued their way, forcing Russia to use weapons. All three Ukrainian ships were detained in the Black Sea. Three Ukrainian servicemen were wounded and received medical assistance. Their lives are currently not under threat. A criminal case has been launched over the violation of Russia’s state border. Moscow slammed the incident as a provocation.