The X account Heroiam_Slava posted declassified U.S. transcripts of Russian President Vladimir Putin telling former U.S. President George W. Bush that Ukraine is an "artificial state" created in Soviet times during 2001 and 2008 conversations over the past hour from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. UTC on December 25, 2025, according to the source. The transcripts, published by the National Security Archive earlier this morning, detail Putin's 2001 remarks to Bush that Ukraine's NATO membership would create a U.S.-Russia conflict zone, formed from territories of Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Russia, with Crimea transferred in 1956, as quoted and reported by Heroiam_Slava on X and corroborated by nexta_tv. Putin noted a third of Ukraine's population is Russian and many view NATO as hostile, repeating in 2008 that NATO expansion would lead to U.S.-Russia conflict and a Ukrainian split, according to the declassified documents shared by Heroiam_Slava and cited by nexta_tv during prior coverage this morning. The National Security Archive published the verbatim transcripts on its website, with social media accounts including Heroiam_Slava amplifying the content on Ukraine amid ongoing NATO discussions.
