NATO NEG: Compiled 9-30-20****

As Kiev was rocked by political upheaval over its ties to the EU, Putin-who had once told U.S. President George W. Bush that Ukraine was "not even a state" and claimed that the Soviet Union had given the territory of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 as "a gift"-responded by invading and annexing Crimea in early 2014. ................
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