Speaking in Budapest, Mr Putin said Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, may also have ordered an escalation in fighting partly because he hoped to attract financial support from Europe and the United States.
“The Ukrainian leadership needs money. They can only get money from the US, EU and financial institutions if they present themselves as victims,” Mr Putin said on Thursday.
The Ukrainian government says Russia and the separatist forces it backs sparked the latest violence by launching an unprovoked assault against a government held city.
Up to 20 people including civilians and soldiers on both sides have been killed and dozens wounded since Sunday, according to statements by Ukrainian and separatist sources.
Shelling over the weekend damaged water, heating and power supply to government-controlled Avdiivka amid a strong cold snap.
By Thursday, the water supply and heating in the town had been partly restored.
The town remained without electricity, however, as workers were unable to access areas where power lines were cut by shelling.
Reports from the town suggested fighting was less intense than on previous days.
Mr Putin was speaking after a meeting with Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, in his first trip abroad since the Mr Trump was inaugurated in the United States.
Talks largely focused on trade, including sales of Russian gas and a deal for Russia’s state nuclear energy monopoly to build a power station in Hungary.
Mr Orban, who is seen as a rare ally of Mr Putin in Europe, welcomed the Russian leader and lamented the economic costs of European Union sanctions against Russia.
“It’s not correct to put conflicts outside of the economy into the economic field, because at the end we will all lose,” he said.
He added that the two countries are operating in “different geopolitical dimensions,” in what was seen as a tactic acknowledgement that he would not move to end the sanctions regime for the time being.
Mr Orbán also took a softer line on Ukraine.
“Ukraine is our common neighbor. Hungary is interested in the complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreement, as well as to have a stable and successful Ukraine. We do everything we can for the fulfillment of the Minsk agreement,” he said.
("Telegraph", 02.02. 2017, by Balazs Csekö and Roland Oliphant)
Photo: Karoly Arvai/AFP/Getty Images