The Times: Kissinger listens to Putin what he likes, but Ukraine's concession of its territory may fuel conflict in the future

An article in the British newspaper "The Times" criticized the veteran politician and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's call for Ukraine to cede some of its territory to Russia in order to end the war.

The article's author, David Aronovich, a columnist for the newspaper, said Kissinger's claim meant that Ukraine would accept Russia's occupation of Crimea and agree to Russia's annexation of the still hotly contested Donetsk and Lugansk provinces.

He pointed out that the Ukrainian leadership is determined not to give up its country's territory in the face of what he described as "Russian criminal aggression" and the vast majority of the Ukrainian people agree with it in this position, not with what Kissinger said, whom he described as the "90th foreign politician who had never elected him." anybody".

Aronovich explained that Kissinger's advice in which he urged the Ukrainians to "be wise" comes as the war has entered a new stage, after the end of the limited victory that forced Russia to withdraw from the areas around Kiev, and a terrible war of attrition is taking place in the east in which the Russians practice their "brutality", on the As he put it, they are destroying the area in order to occupy it.

So that the interests of the West are not harmed

Although Ukrainians are being killed in this war, he said, "we feel constantly uncomfortable, even though we're not bombed, but prices go up. So perhaps Kissinger was explaining in clear terms what others think but are afraid to express."

The writer highlighted that the American newspaper “New York Times” had reported a similar opinion to Kissinger’s opinion in its editorial last week about the Russian war on Ukraine, where the editors made it clear that they were right when they said before that “Ukraine deserves support against aggression.” the unjustified Russian and that the resistance to Putin's violence must be led by the United States";

Before they added: "But popular support for a war far from the shores of the United States will not last indefinitely, and inflation is a much bigger problem for American voters than Ukraine."

The editorial of the "New York Times" - according to the writer - also indicated that Kyiv must take decisions to end the war, which the newspaper described as "painful decisions related to the regions."

The writer asked about the areas the newspaper was referring to, and said that the editors he saw as shameful did not bother to explain what they meant by that point, unlike Kissinger, but they advised President Biden “to make it clear to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his people that there is a limit to how far the states can reach.” The United States and NATO versus Russia.

lame realistic

Aronovich criticized Kissinger's de facto policy, explaining that it is to convince the Ukrainians who fought those who invaded their country until they brought it to a dead end and refused to give up their land that they must now help this invader save his face by giving him part of their land.

This appears to be "realism," the writer said, so "to counteract Russia's excessive recklessness, we are called upon to embrace Kissinger's theory of great-power recklessness; we will talk about freedom and sovereignty over national territory and then reward the nuclear-armed aggressor with a portion of another country's territory."

“If Kissinger was giving honest advice, why didn’t he give it to Zelensky in private, since Putin and his advisers can’t hear it and draw strength from it?” Aronovich asked, “Perhaps because even at 98 you may still be arrogant and horribly wrong.” .

In a speech at the Davos forum on Monday, Kissinger urged Western countries to stop trying to inflict a crushing defeat on Russian forces in Ukraine, warning that this would have dire consequences for Europe's stability in the long run.

He also warned against prolonging the war in Ukraine, and said that Western leaders should make Ukraine accept to sit at the negotiating table with Russia, even if the terms of negotiation are less than the goals they want to get out of the war.