Kiev dismisses Kissinger's 'call for peace' in Ukraine

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Dec 2022 23:33
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The US veteran diplomat said that in May he laid a solution for Russia to withdraw to the front lines before the launch of the special operation and that Crimea would be negotiated.

Kiev dismisses Kissinger's call for peace in Ukraine

Reuters reported on Sunday that Kiev dismissed US diplomat Henry Kissinger's statements on negotiating peace in Ukraine in an atempt to avert a possible third World War.

According to the report, Kiev slammed his comments as "appeasing the agressor" and that there could be no compromise involved in ceding territory.

Kissinger, who is generally known as "an architect of the Cold War policy of detente" towards the USSR, likewise known as a warmongerer in several countries of the Global South, has had multiple encounters with the head of the Russian state, Vladimir Putin, since 2000.

"The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation," Kissinger wrote in The Spectator magazine.

"A peace process should link Ukraine to NATO, however expressed. The alternative of neutrality is no longer meaningful," Kissinger added.

The US veteran diplomat further said that in May he laid a solution for Russia to withdraw to the front lines before the launch of the special operation and that Crimea would be negotiated.

In response to this, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Telegram "Mr. Kissinger still has not understood anything ... neither the nature of this war, nor its impact on the world order."

"The prescription that the ex-Secretary of State calls for, but is afraid to say out loud, is simple: appease the aggressor by sacrificing parts of Ukraine with guarantees of non-aggression against the other states of Eastern Europe."

He added, "All supporters of simple solutions should remember the obvious: any agreement 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."

Since Russia initiated its special military operation in the aim of repelling NATO's eastward expansion, Russia has now come to control nearly a fifth of former Ukrainian territory.

Kiev has been calling for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops, including in Crimea which has been liberated by Moscow in 2014.

On December 8, ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Zeit newspaper that the Minsk accords on resolving the Donbass war were signed to "give Ukraine time" to strengthen itself.

Merkel said "The 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give time to Ukraine. It also used this time to become stronger as can be seen today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the modern Ukraine."

According to her, "it was clear to everyone" that the conflict had been put on hold, noting that the issue had not been settled, "yet this was what gave Ukraine invaluable time."

Kiev reportedly applied to fast-track its NATO membership after Russia had announced it annexed Ukraine's southern and eastern regions.