He criticized the West's "demonization" of Putin.. Kissinger changes his position on the Ukraine war and believes that Russia has "actually lost"

Washington

- Henry Kissinger's position on the Russian war in Ukraine has changed dramatically since the start of the fighting on February 24.

At a seminar at the Council on Foreign Relations, Kissinger, 99, noted - in an interview with Council President Richard Haass - that "Russia, in a way, has already lost the war in Ukraine."

He also criticized what he called the demonization of President Vladimir Putin by America and the West, considering it a non-political act, and evidence of the absence of politics.

Kissinger condemned the personification of the conflict with Russia and reduced it to the person of the Russian president, saying that this was not a wise act, as the United States' attempts to include Ukraine in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

It is noteworthy that after the accession of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions to Russia last Friday, following referendums deemed "sham" by Kyiv and the West, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country would apply to join NATO urgently.

At that virtual symposium, Kissinger said Russia's invasion of Ukraine showed that "Moscow's ability to threaten to overrun Europe with conventional weapons has now been clearly overcome."

The important question now, Kissinger added, is "What is Russia's relationship with Europe in the future?"

Noting that, in the end, dialogue should begin between the West and Russia.

He said we desperately need "some dialogue" perhaps on an informal level, and perhaps in an exploratory way "because that is very important, especially since we are in a nuclear environment where dialogue is much better than battlefield decisions."

Kissinger's position represents a major change, especially after he proposed several months ago that Ukraine ceded some of its lands to Russia to help end the invasion, which caused great embarrassment for him as many officials and experts in Washington and European capitals, especially Kyiv, attacked him.

During his participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos in May, the former minister urged the United States and the West not to seek an embarrassing defeat for Russia in Ukraine, warning that this could negatively affect Europe's stability in the long run.

Kissinger rules out a return to the borders before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, Zelensky stressed that part of his conditions for entering into peace talks with Russia would include restoring the pre-war borders.

Since the outbreak of battles more than 7 months ago, Kissinger has repeated his call to Western countries to remember Russia's importance to the old continent, and to pressure the West to force Kyiv to accept negotiations with Moscow.

Unhelpful confrontation

The former US National Security Adviser also put forward a general perception a decade ago, warning of slipping into an unhelpful confrontation with Russia, and the possibility of avoiding any conflict over or in Ukraine.

Kissinger wrote following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, urging the administration of President Barack Obama to exercise restraint.

Kissinger believes that none of these facts has changed in Washington over recent years or due to current developments, as the risks of escalation against Moscow are still very high despite Ukraine's lack of strategic importance to American interests.

He acknowledged that real policy skills are shown in how to end wars, not in igniting them. "If Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be an outpost of either side against the other (the West or Russia) but rather act as a bridge between them."

The former US Secretary of State concluded, "The West must realize that Ukraine, in the eyes of Russia, can never be just an ordinary foreign country."