Henry Kissinger: There are Three Possible Ways Out of the War in Ukraine

"At the last meeting in Davos, I said that the dividing line between Russia and Ukraine must return to the previous status quo, because continuing the war beyond that point could turn it into a war not for the freedom of Ukraine, but a war against Russia. For this, I was subjected to a lot of criticism, not least from Mr. Zelensky. The purpose of the Davos statement was to point out that the question of the aims of the war must be addressed before the momentum of the war makes it politically unmanageable."

"When Zelensky made his comment, he had not read what I had said. In his latest statements, he essentially accepted what I set out in Davos. He gave an interview to the Financial Times [on 7 June] in which he essentially accepted the basic framework of my hypothesis."

"The basic framework is this: there are three possible outcomes of this war - and all three are still somewhat open."

"If Russia stays where it is now, it will have conquered 20% of Ukraine and most of Donbas, the main industrial and agricultural area, as well as a strip of land along the Black Sea. If it stays there, it will be a victory, despite all the setbacks they suffered early on. And NATO's role would not have been as decisive as previously thought."

"The other way out is to try to push Russia out of the territories it has already acquired before this war, including Crimea, and then there will be the question of war with Russia itself if the war continues."

"The third outcome, which I sketched in Davos, and which I think Zelensky has already accepted, is that if the Free World succeeds in preventing Russia from making any military gains, and if the battle line returns to when the war started, then the...