JOHANNESBURG, August 23. /TASS/. Russia's special military operation pursues the goal of ending the war in Ukraine unleashed by a number of Western countries and their satellites, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of BRICS leaders.

"Russia has decided to support the people who are fighting for their culture, for their traditions, for their language and for their future. Our actions in Ukraine have only one reason - to put an end to the war that was unleashed by the West and their satellites in Ukraine against the people living in Donbass," Putin said.

He stressed that it was the wish of a number of Western countries to preserve their hegemony in the world that "has led to the grave crisis in Ukraine."

Putin recalled that "first, with the help of the Western countries, an unconstitutional coup d'etat was carried out in that country, and then a war was unleashed against those people who did not agree with that coup."

"This brutal war, a war of extermination, had lasted for eight years," Putin emphasized.