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Kissinger comments on Zelensky’s criticisms — Analysis

According to the veteran US diplomat, he has never recommended that Ukraine cede its territory to Russia.

Henry Kissinger said he never suggested that Russia should keep the territories that Ukraine and its Western backers consider under Kiev’s sovereignty, and that the criticisms he faced over the idea were misplaced.

“Right now, Russia still occupies 15% of pre-war Ukrainian territory. It must be restored to Ukraine before a meaningful ceasefire can be established,”In an interview published Sunday by TIME magazine, the ex-US secretary of state stated these words.

Kissinger believes that Crimea and the part of Donbass that was controlled by the Russia-allied forces of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics should be taken out of the immediate equation because they have “significance to Russia beyond the dispute of the current crisis.”

“I did not say that territory should be given up,”He stressed. “I just implied that it should have a separate status in any negotiations.”

Kissinger warns of deadline for Ukraine peace settlement

He was responding to remarks made by him in May in a video link at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He called for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to start soon and warned that the West’s failure to account for Moscow’s security interests would pull it closer to China.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has repeatedly dismissed any outcome short of a Russian military defeat as unacceptable for his country, blasted Kissinger for what he claimed to be appeasement of Russia. The Ukrainian leader compared the statesman to the architects of the Munich Agreement of 1938 – the UK and France – which paved the way for Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In 2014, the Maidan armed coup led to Crimea voting to be free from Ukraine and join Russia. Moscow agreed. The Donbass republics sought greater autonomy in Ukraine, but they took arms after the military crackdown by Kiev’s new authorities. Russia stated that it needed to defend the republics against continued Ukrainian aggressions before launching its offensive against Ukraine in Feb. 

Kissinger’s interview was devoted to discussing his new book about the leadership of remarkable statesmen. He explores six cases: post-war West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, French President Charles de Gaulle, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

‘Go f**k yourselves’, Zelensky aide tells Western officials

When asked to evaluate Zelensky’s leadership, Kissinger reiterated his views that the man played a historic role by winning the presidency in a nation that “normally would not elect somebody of his background” – referring to him being Jewish, as Kissinger himself is.

He said, “He added…” “it remains to be seen whether he can institutionalize what he has started or whether that is the impact of an extraordinary personality on a very dramatic situation.”

“He has not expressed himself about what the world will look like after the war with the same clarity and conviction with which he has led the pursuit of the war,”The veteran statesman stated. “But I consider him a great figure.”

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