With interest in the Kremlin meet with a new article by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the magazine spectator About how he sees the future world between Russia and Ukraine and about the future European security architecture. This was announced by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov on Friday, December 16.
“Kissinger’s talent, experience and expertise are always in demand. It is especially in demand in such acute situations.
We will study this material with great interest, so far, unfortunately, there has been no such opportunity, ”says. TASS Kremlin representative
We are talking about a recent article by Kissinger in which he stated that if Ukraine and Russia could not reach a solution. conflict through military action or negotiations, the disputed areas will have to hold referenda on self-determination under international supervision.
“If the pre-war border between Ukraine and Russia cannot be reached by military or negotiation, the principle of self-determination can be invoked. In his article, Kissinger noted that internationally supervised self-determination referendums can be held, especially in disputed areas that have changed hands several times over the centuries.
In early July, the former US Secretary of State said in an interview with the same publication that the conflict over Ukraine can be resolved in three ways, depending on whether NATO’s role in Europe can be strengthened or weakened.
It was Kissinger back then. assumedThe first possible scenario is that “Russia will conquer 20% of the territory of Ukraine, including most of the Donbass, and a strip of land along the Black Sea”.
According to him, this will be a victory for Moscow, and NATO’s role in this situation “will not be as decisive as previously thought.”
The former US Secretary of State sees the second option “in an attempt to expel Russia from the territory it acquired before this war, including Crimea,” and then for the West “a question of war with Russia itself will arise.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is the withdrawal of Russian troops to the “1991 borders”. condition is called To start peace talks with the Russian Federation.
As a third scenario, Kissinger called for the front line to return to its position before the start of the Russian special military operation, that is, as of February 23, 2022.
According to him, in this case Ukraine will “rearm if it does not become a part of it, and it will be closely linked to NATO.” As Kissinger believes, “This will be a significant achievement for the Allies and NATO will be strengthened with the participation of Finland and Sweden, which will create an opportunity for the defense of the Baltic states.” At the same time, Ukraine “will have the largest conventional ground forces in Europe linked to NATO,” he concluded.
Kissinger spoke via video link at the World Economic Forum in Davos in May. He then pointed to the need to start negotiations for a solution in Ukraine in the next two months “until the relations between Europe and Russia finally deteriorate”. A number of Western media criticized Kissinger’s words as a call for concessions to Russia.
Commenting on the former US Secretary of State’s stance, Zelensky said, “In Davos, for example, Mr. Kissinger comes out of the deep past and says it is necessary to give Russia a piece of so-called Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian leader added that Kissinger “appeared not in Davos in 2022, but in Munich in 1938” when an agreement was signed between Germany, Britain, Italy and France on the annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland to Germany.
Recall that from September 23 to 27, 2022, referendums were held in the DPR, LPR, as well as Kherson and partially Zaporozhye regions on the accession of these regions to the Russian Federation. On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed agreements on the admission of new territories to the country, these documents were later ratified by the Russian parliament.
On November 9, Army General Sergei Surovikin, the commander of the troop grouping in the special operations zone in Ukraine, informed the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu that the troops had withdrawn from Kherson to take up the defense on the left bank of the Dnieper.