At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ukrainian President Zelenskyj complained that the West did not stand together for Ukraine. He explicitly names two countries. Meanwhile, former US Secretary of Defense Henry Kissinger is urging Ukraine to cede territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused western countries of not standing united on Ukraine’s side. “My question is: is there unity in practice? I don’t see it,” said Zelenskyj during a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Zelenskyy accused Turkey and Hungary in particular of not showing solidarity with his country, which has been defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for three months.
Selenskyj, who was connected via video, expressly thanked US President Joe Biden for the support of the USA. As a European country, Ukraine needs above all “the support of a united Europe,” said Zelenskyy. “We will have a huge advantage over Russia if we are really united,” he said.
Selenskyj expressly criticized Hungary, which refused to agree to an EU-wide oil embargo against Russia. “There is something wrong with Hungary!” he said. The country is “not as united as the rest of the EU” in supporting Ukraine.
The head of state also referred to the resistance of NATO member Turkey to the application of the two Nordic countries Finland and Sweden to join the defense alliance. “Is there unity when Sweden and Finland joined NATO? No. So is the West united? No,” said the Ukrainian president.
An assessment made by former US Secretary of Defense Henry Kissinger at the World Economic Forum caused a stir in Davos on Monday. First, he argued that negotiations must begin in the next two months “before upheavals and tensions arise that will not be easily resolved.” Referring to the territory’s central point of contention, the 98-year-old said, according to reports from several English-language media: “Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante.” Continuing the war beyond that point would not be about Ukraine’s freedom, Kissinger said, but about a new war against Russia itself.
The “status quo ante” mentioned by Kissinger refers to the restoration of a situation where Russia formally controlled Crimea and informally the two easternmost regions of Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk.
Mykhailo Podolyak, one of the Ukrainian president’s advisers, responded on Twitter, writing: “As simply as Mr. Kissinger suggests giving part of Ukraine to Russia to end the war, he would also allow Lithuania and Poland to be given away.”