The West's constant attempts to draw Kiev into NATO are one of the main causes of the Ukrainian conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

Axar.az reports, citing TASS, he pointed out that the crisis arose largely because of the coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014, which was provoked by the West.

"The second reason for the crisis is the West's constant attempts to draw Ukraine into NATO. As we have repeatedly emphasized, this poses a direct threat to Russia's security," Putin noted.

According to the Russian president, as a result of the coup in 2014, "the political leadership of the country that did not support Ukraine's accession to NATO was removed."