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Kissinger: NATO's ‘grave mistake’ caused Ukraine war

Saturday, 27 May 2023 4:20 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 May 2023 5:08 PM ]

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attends a luncheon with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Dec. 1, 2022, at the State Department in Washington, DC. (File photo by Reuters)

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has said the NATO membership offer to Ukraine was a "grave mistake" that led to the war of the combined West against Russia.

“I’m in the ironical position that I was alone when I opposed membership, and I’m nearly alone when I advocate NATO membership,” Kissinger said in an interview recorded days before his 100th birthday on Saturday.

“I think the offer to put Ukraine into NATO was a grave mistake and led to this war,” explained the seasoned former diplomat, who served under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Yet he claimed that the scale of the conflict "is a Russian peculiarity," and the United States and its allies "were absolutely right to resist it.”

But after the US and its allies turned Ukraine into the “best-armed country in Europe,” it clearly belongs to the Washington-led NATO military alliance, Kissinger claimed, adding that now he believes that peace in Europe cannot be achieved without Ukraine in NATO.

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Kissinger also said that Ukraine was required to accept that Sevastopol, which is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea, is part of Russia and should not be separated from the nation.

“For Russia, the loss of Sevastopol, which was always not Ukrainian in history, would be such a comedown that the cohesion of the state would be in danger. And I think that’s not desirable for the world after Ukraine,” he said.

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Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov warned earlier this week about possible attacks on the Crimean Peninsula by Ukrainian forces.

In a statement published on the Russian embassy's Telegram channel, Antonov warned, “It is important that the United States be fully aware of the Russian response" to attacks against Crimea.

Crimea separated from Ukraine and joined Russia through a referendum in 2014.

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