NEW YORK, August 13. /TASS/. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger believes that NATO expansion should have stopped in Poland, and Ukraine should have taken the place in relations between Russia and the West that Finland used to have, he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
According to the newspaper, Kissinger believes that "it was a mistake for NATO to signal to Ukraine that it might eventually join the alliance" and that Putin’s security concerns should be taken seriously.
"I thought that Poland - all the traditional Western countries that have been part of Western history - were logical members of NATO," he said. "I was in favor of the full independence of Ukraine, but I thought its best role was something like Finland," Kissinger added.
In Kissinger’s view, Ukraine "is a collection of territories once appended to Russia, which Russians see as their own, even though ‘some Ukrainians’ do not. Stability would be better served by its acting as a buffer between Russia and the West," the newspaper wrote.
However, as a result of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, Kissinger believes the situation has changed. "Now I consider, one way or the other, formally or not, Ukraine has to be treated in the aftermath of this as a member of NATO," he said.