ST. PETERSBURG, July 26. /TASS/. Years of aggressive actions by the West against Russia led to the conflict in Ukraine and forced Moscow to launch the special military operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Russian Navy service members.

He recalled the West's unfulfilled promise not to expand NATO's infrastructure eastward.

"They kept moving, moving, until they reached Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine's president supported joining the European Union but opposed joining NATO. What happened then? They carried out a bloody, unconstitutional coup. And the entire West acted as if nothing had happened, as if that was the way it should be. It was those aggressive actions, escalating year after year, that led to today's conflict in Ukraine. They forced us to launch the special military operation in an effort to end the hostilities that had already been started by the West and the Kiev government in that part of what was then Ukraine," he said.