President Putin does not want to have a war in Ukraine.
He knows that, at this moment, Russia is weak and the US is too strong.
He thinks that the US wants to tackle Russia when it is still weak and then dedicate themselves to “take care” of China. Even for the US a China-Russia alliance is a nightmare stuff.
He thinks that Ukraine is a trap (note that all MH17 news have disappeared and the radar control of Ukraine airspace have never been released).
What he is doing now is creating alliances with states not too friendly to the US (China, India, South America, Iran, Iraq etc) in order, in a few years, to have a Russia fully independent from the Western allies.
He is also reshaping and updating all Russian army on the US model (well why invent when you can copy).
Time is on his side on this case.
This does not mean that it is impossible a war (the humanitarian convoy is such an easy false flag attack item) – but if he can he will avoid.
Then, if the US do not self destruct in a 2008 style financial crisis, in 5 years we will see the real cold war.
investorpolitico 