MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/. A hybrid war is being waged against Russia but the country will continue to confidently counter external pressure, sanctions and provocative acts of incitement, President Vladimir Putin said at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

"In fact, there is a hybrid war being waged against us, which involves illegal sanctions on Russia that are unprecedented in scale. I would like to point out that Russia has been and will continue to confidently counter external pressure, sanctions and provocative incitements," the Russian head of state emphasized.

He added that, for quite a while, external forces had been carrying out a project aimed at transforming Ukraine into "a hostile state; the anti-Russia." "For eight years, they pumped it [Ukraine] full of weapons, condoned aggression against the peaceful population of Donbass, and turned a blind eye to the enforced propagation of neo-Nazi ideas. And all of this was being done to put the security of Russia under threat and put a check on the development of our country," Putin pointed out.