Josh Rogin and Eli Lake: US told Ukraine to stand down as Putin invaded
A man walks past a graffito depicting Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the centre of the Crimean city of Simferopol on Aug. 13, 2015.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces took over Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in early 2014, the interim Ukrainian government was debating whether or not to fight back against the "little green men" Russia had deployed. But the message from the Barack Obama administration was clear: avoid military confrontation with Moscow.
