The war between Russia and Ukraine has been raging for almost four months. Uncertainty about when and under what conditions the conflict will end still prevails.
Despite the aid and arms support from the West, the Ukrainian army is hemorrhaging, and Russia is increasing its territorial gains in the east and south of Ukraine. It is known that the U.S. and U.K. are in favor of prolonging the war in Ukraine. Currently, there is no serious shift in the Biden Administration’s stance on the raging war.
I have mentioned in my previous columns that there are sharp differences between U.S. foreign policy elites when it comes to the issue of Ukraine. While some strategists, known as realists, argue that NATO’s expansion to the East contradicts the national interests of the United States, Liberal and Neocon hawks react very harshly to such views. 99-year-old Henry Kissinger, who is seen as the doyen of “realist politicians” in the U.S., argued that Ukraine should reconcile with Russia in his speech at the “World Economic Forum” held in Davos on May 23. Kissinger, who served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State during Richard Nixon’s Presidency, was the architect of the United States’ diplomatic relationship with China. This relationship, which was established during the Cold War period, was the product of the policy of containment of the Soviet Union.
Kissinger, the oldest and most cunning U.S. strategist, now argues that Russia should not be China’s most outpost in Europe. Therefore, Kissinger was advising Ukraine and Russia to return to their positions before February 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recalled the concessions that Britain and France made to Hitler in 1938 and said: “it seems that Mr. Kissinger’s calendar is not 2022, but 1938.”
In fact, Kissinger has been advocating leaving Ukraine alone for a long time. In an article he penned in the Washington Post after pro-Russian militias seized control of Crimea in February 2014, Kissinger argued that Ukraine should not join NATO.
According to Kissinger, Ukraine should not be an outpost of either the “East” or the “West” against one another. On the contrary, Kissinger, who argued that Ukraine should act as a bridge between East and West, recommended that Ukraine be “neutral” like Finland.
The strongest reactions to Kissinger’s Davos speech came from Neocons and Liberal Hawks in the U.S. The reactions in Britain, the closest ally of Washington, were also very harsh.
Kissinger’s Davos speech made headlines in the British media. America’s old fox found himself perhaps for the first time in his long career the target of such violent backlash in the West.
Kissinger was praised in countries that did not support the imposition of sanctions on Russia. To give an example, Mohammed Almezel, editor-in-chief of the Dubai-based English-language newspaper “Gulfnews”, stated in his article dated June 13 that European leaders seeking reconciliation with Russia were inspired by Kissinger. Almezel emphasized that the confused policy of the European Union, which is under pressure from Washington, weakened its ability to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. Almezel also stated that if the leaders of the EU listened to Kissinger by standing up to U.S. pressure, they would have done a historical favor to their continent.
Edward Luttwak, an influential military strategist in the United States, stated that both sides were in a dangerous stalemate in Ukraine.
According to Luttwak, the only way out of the stalemate is the holding of a referendum in Luhansk and Donetsk. Stating that both sides should accept the results of the plebiscite, Luttwak went on to point out that Russia will never give up on Crimea.
Luttwak also noted that the U.S. and West aid is not enough for the Ukrainians to win the war on the ground, so Kyiv will seek a way out of this deadlock.
Speaking at the “National Security Conference” held by the Washington-based Center for a New American Security (CNAS) on June 14-16, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reiterated that they would not pressure the Kyiv Administration to make territorial concessions to Russia, saying that “We think that’s frankly wrong.” Sullivan’s speech appeared to target former National Security Advisor Kissinger.