The Kremlin is not the only one to blame for the war, says Kissinger – Nauzal

“I don’t think all the blame is on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Kissinger said in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit, saying that even before 2014, he considered Ukraine’s NATO membership offers “unwise.” “Even then I was very doubtful about it. This started a series of events that resulted in war,” said the former American minister, who will celebrate his hundredth birthday on Saturday.

According to Kissinger, Putin got the impression that no one was taking him seriously anymore. “For him, Ukraine has become a symbol of Russia’s humiliation,” he emphasized. Before 2014, Kissinger said, he believed that Ukraine should have remained a neutral state with a status similar to that of Finland at the time.

But that does not justify Russian aggression, Kissinger said, adding that he fully supports Ukraine’s resistance. Now he approves Ukraine’s entry into the alliance. “Today, I am absolutely in favor of Ukraine being admitted to NATO after the end of the war. Now that there are no more neutral zones between Russia and NATO, it is better for the West to accept Ukraine into the alliance,” said the former American minister.

Henry Kissinger, a native of Fürth, Bavaria, is a legend of American diplomacy. He served as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1973–77. At the time, he sought to ease tensions between the US and the then Soviet Union and for more open relations between Washington and Beijing. His word still carries a lot of weight in the United States.

Last year, Kissinger caused a stir by declaring that Ukraine should return to peace talks before February 24, 2022 – the date Russia’s aggression began. At that time, Moscow controlled the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed in 2014, and informally also part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics were established. The Ukrainian leadership flatly rejected his proposal.