Putin says, war unlikely with Ukraine

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not believe a war with Ukraine is possible, describing such a conflict as “apocalyptic” in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
“I think that such an apocalyptic scenario is unlikely and I hope this will never happen,” he said in reply to a question about whether one day the Russians would wake up to the news that war has broken out.
“I do not give advice, but authorities in such a large European country like Ukraine should address, first, how to normalise life in the country,” the Russian president said.
But what is more serious, he added, were the attempts to fan the flames of an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“If the Minsk agreement is implemented, I’m sure the situation in eastern Ukraine will gradually normalise,” Putin said, referring to a truce signed in the Belarus capital.

He explained that he believed that Europe was no less interested than Russia in compliance with the Minsk agreements, since nobody needed a conflict on the periphery of Europe.