ULAN-UDE, March 14. /TASS/. Russia had been patiently trying to normalize situation with Ukraine for decades but the situation changed after the state coup in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"As a matter of fact, we had been patiently trying to normalize relations with the modern Ukrainian state for decades," he said at a meeting with workers of the Ulan-Ude aircraft-building plant. "The situation changed dramatically in 2014 when the West-instigate state coup was staged."

According to Putin, in its relations with Ukraine, Russia relied on those who considered themselves as part of the large Russian world, but in 2014 their extermination began.

"We relied not just on the Russian-speaking population [in Ukraine]. The whole country there is essentially Russian-speaking. We relied on those who considered themselves as part of the large Russian world, part of our culture, part of our language environment and part of our common traditions. We relied on these people," Putin said.

He stressed that "after 2014 the physical extermination of those who advocated the development of normal relations with Russia began."

The president recalled that when the problem of Crimea emerged, Russia simply could not but support those people.