Henry Kissinger has denied ever claiming that Russia should keep territories that Ukraine considers to be under its jurisdiction. He added that criticism directed at comments he made on the subject has been misplaced.
“Right now, Russia still occupies 15% of pre-war Ukrainian territory. It must be restored to Ukraine before a meaningful ceasefire can be established,” the former US secretary of state said in an interview with TIME magazine published on Sunday.
Kissinger believes that Crimea and the part of Donbass that was controlled by the Russia-allied forces of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics should be taken out of the immediate equation because they have “significance to Russia beyond the dispute of the current crisis.”
“I did not say that territory should be given up,” he stressed. “I just implied that it should have a separate status in any negotiations.”