“Russia, despite all its willingness to use violence, has made decisive contributions to the global balance”: Henry Kissinger.
The Ukrainian government has dismissed calls by veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger that the time has come for a negotiated peace with Russia to reduce the risk of a devastating world war as “appeasement of the aggressor”.
Former US Secretary of State Kissinger, architect of the Cold War détente policy towards the Soviet Union under disgraced US President Richard Nixon and later President Gerald Ford, made the suggestion in an op-ed piece published in Spectator magazine.
“I have repeatedly expressed my support for Allied military efforts to thwart Russia’s aggression in Ukraine,” Kissinger wrote.
“But the time is approaching to build on the strategic changes already achieved and integrate them into a new structure to achieve peace through negotiations,” he wrote.
“The preferred outcome for some is a war-powerless Russia. I don’t agree with that,” Kissinger continued.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 2019 [File: Jaime R. Carrero/Reuters]
“For more than half a millennium, Russia, despite all its willingness to use violence, has made decisive contributions to global equilibrium and the balance of power. Its historical role should not be belittled. Russia’s military setbacks have not eliminated its global nuclear reach, allowing it to threaten escalation in Ukraine,” he added.
Kissinger, who has met Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions, suggested at the World Economic Forum in Davos in May that Ukraine should cede Crimea, which it annexed to Russia in 2014, and that Russia withdraw to the front lines before its February 2022 invasion.
“Mr. Kissinger still hasn’t understood anything… neither the nature of this war nor its impact on the world order,” Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Telegram.
“The recipe that the ex-foreign minister is demanding but dares not say out loud is simple: appease the attacker by sacrificing parts of Ukraine with guarantees of no-attacks on the rest of Eastern Europe,” he said.
“The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes already achieved and integrate them into a new structure for achieving peace through negotiations.”
✍️ Henry Kissinger https://t.co/Vub4zb2mig
– The spectator (@spectator) December 18, 2022
Ukraine has said it doesn’t believe that Putin – who has said he is prepared for a long war in Ukraine – is serious about peace and that there can be no peace until every Russian soldier has his territory, including Crimea.
Podolyak added: “All advocates of easy solutions should remember the obvious: any deal with the devil – a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories – will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world.”
Kremlin officials could not be reached for comment late Sunday.
⚡️Zelenskyy’s advisor rejects Kissinger’s proposal for a negotiated peace with Russia.
Kyiv dismissed former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s suggestion that the time was near to reach peace through negotiations with Russia, saying his proposal “appeased the aggressor”.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 19, 2022
In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned proposals that Ukraine should cede control of the territory to Russia to ensure peace, likening such a move to appeasement of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Those “great geopoliticians” who propose this disregard the interests of Ukrainians, “the millions of people who actually live on the territory that they want to trade for an illusion of peace,” Zelenskyy said at the time.
“Whatever the Russian state does, you will always find someone who says, ‘Let’s take his interests into account,'” Zelenskyy said.
CIA Director William Burns said in an interview published Saturday that while most conflicts end in negotiations, the CIA’s assessment is that Russia is not yet serious about real negotiations to end the war.