President writes 'Obama-given Crimea' on his social network the night before meeting Zelenskyy.

The President spent Sunday at his golf course in Virginia. By the late evening he was on his social network, posting a series of statements about the upcoming Monday meeting with the Ukrainian president. One sentence in the series read, of Crimea, “Obama-given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!).”

The historical record on the 2014 Russian seizure of Crimea is settled. Russian special forces, in unmarked uniforms, occupied the Supreme Council building in Simferopol on February 27, 2014. The Russian flag was raised over the parliament. Russian troops surrounded Ukrainian military bases on the peninsula. A referendum, conducted under armed occupation and recognized by no country other than Russia, was held on March 16. Russia formally annexed the peninsula on March 18. Ukrainian sailors, when ordered off their ships, were ordered off them by Russian forces.

The phrase “without a shot being fired” is incorrect on the public record. Ukrainian Senior Lieutenant Sergei Kakurin was killed in Simferopol on March 18, 2014, by Russian fire. The 36th Separate Marine Brigade and other units sustained additional casualties through the period. The annexation was, narrowly, an act of war.

The verb “given” implies a giver. There was no giver. There was a seizure.

This is not a small matter of word choice. It is the framing the United States is now bringing into a White House meeting with the country whose territory was, in fact, seized. The framing was published on the President’s social platform the night before, where everyone, including the visiting head of state, would read it.

A serious country prepares for a bilateral meeting by remembering, accurately, what was done to the country across the table.

Calmly documenting the decline.