Kissinger: U.S. at 'Edge of War With Russia' Over Ukraine
Former Secretary of State drew backlash earlier this year when he said Ukraine should negotiate for a peaceful settlement
Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, said in an interview published Saturday that the U.S. is on “the edge of war” with Russia over Ukraine.
In May, Kissinger drew public condemnation after saying that Kyiv should negotiate with Moscow to come up with a peaceful end to the conflict — even if it meant ceding some territory to Russia. He said at the time that negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome.
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The 99-year-old said pursuing the war “beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself.”
Kissinger told The Wall Street Journal that potential war with Russia is based on issues “which we partly created.”
He spoke about what led up to the 24 invasion and Russia’s security concerns about the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. (Ukraine was not a full member, nor did the alliance seem interested in taking in Kyiv, which would mean war with Russia. But the Biden administration’s position was that Russia could not dictate what countries can apply for membership.)
Kissinger told the paper that he thought it was a mistake to keep open the possibility of Ukrainian membership.
“I thought that Poland—all the traditional Western countries that have been part of Western history—were logical members of NATO,” he says. But Ukraine, in his view, is a collection of territories once appended to Russia, which Russians see as their own, even though “some Ukrainians” do not. Stability would be better served by its acting as a buffer between Russia and the West: “I was in favor of the full independence of Ukraine, but I thought its best role was something like Finland.”
TRENDPOST: Kissinger told the paper that he believes the two countries will ultimately reach a settlement that keeps Crimea in Russia’s possession. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video on Tuesday that the conflict with Russia will only end after Kyiv liberates Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
“Crimea is Ukrainian, and we'll never give up on it,” Zelensky said, adding that Kyiv is “constantly adding new components to the formula of liberating” the peninsula.
Kissinger’s comments in May followed nonagenarian Noam Chomsky’s earlier statements about the dangers of a prolonged conflict in Ukraine. Chomsky, correctly, stated earlier this month that Ukrainian leadership’s cry for more heavy weapons is actually the Western “propaganda system.”
Kissinger said American politicians and diplomats have “a great trouble defining a direction.”
“It’s very responsive to the emotion of the moment,” he said. He told the paper that Americans resist separating the idea of diplomacy from that of “personal relationships with the adversary.”