Putin Visits Crimea as 20 Die in Eastern Ukraine Clashes
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Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Crimea region he annexed in March amid growing tensions as Ukraine said about 20 pro-Russian separatists died in clashes in the eastern port city of Mariupol.
Putin’s trip to Sevastopol, the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was his first since the Crimean peninsula seceded from Ukraine. The government in Kiev and its U.S. and European allies say Putin’s seizure of Crimea was illegitimate, and they accuse him of fomenting unrest in east Ukraine in what may be a prelude to another land grab.