'The war will continue' in Ukraine: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday he saw no end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine "as long as the current authorities remain in power."
"The current Ukrainian authorities have no interest in resolving the conflict, especially by peaceful means," Putin told reporters at the end of the G20 summit in Argentina.
"As long as they remain in power, the war will continue," the Russian leader said.
The conflict pitting Russian separatists against Ukrainian government forces is estimated to have claimed more than 10,000 lives -- one-third of them civilian -- since it broke out four years ago.
Putin also said he briefed his US counterpart Donald Trump on the Ukraine crisis when the leaders met briefly at a G20 summit dinner Friday.
"We spoke standing up. I replied to his questions about the incident in the Black Sea," he said.
Putin strode into the summit under a cloud, having drawn outrage from Europe over last week's incident in which his navy detained three Ukrainian ships and 24 sailors -- causing Trump to abruptly cancel their scheduled meeting.
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko kept up the pressure from Kiev, saying Putin had refused to take his calls since the crisis started.
He said that when the incident happened, he instructed his office to set up a call with the Kremlin leader to say "we are ready for this negotiation to de-escalate... and unfortunately, until now, Putin did not answer my request for a direct phone conversation."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel took Putin to task at length over the naval spat, a day after French President Emmanuel Macron urged him to "de-escalate" the crisis.
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