Checkmate? Epic Spat Erupts Between Kissinger and Kasparov, Among Others, Over the War in Ukraine

The chess grandmaster and Russian dissident Garry Kasparov, responding to Henry Kissinger’s call for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war, laced into the one-time American secretary of state, denouncing his position as “immoral” and reminding that “it’s not the Cold War anymore.” Speaking by video phone at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Mr. Kissinger had poured a figurative bucket of cold water on Western fervor for the Ukrainian cause. He warned that it would be “fatal” to “succumb to the mood of the moment” and push for total Ukrainian victory. Before 24 hours had passed, the spat was sputtering on Twitter, and the Kiev Independent newspaper leapt into the fray with an editorial attacking the New York Times for its own call for the Ukrainians to sue for peace and make “hard decisions” about its ravaged borders. All of this came two days after the chief foreign correspondent of the Sun, Benny Avni, reported that Ukraine was resisting growing calls to appease President Putin.Mr. Kissinger, 98, warned that Ukraine should enter negotiations before the war yields “upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome.” He insists that ambitions to defeat Russia on a grand scale should give way to retreat to “the status quo ante.” For Mr. Kissinger, “pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself.” This practitioner of realpolitik appears to have shed none of those instincts in his old age.In response, Mr. Kasparov attempted to school the dean of American foreign policy by noting that “conceding to great power spheres like Putin and Xi Jinping want isn’t sustainable because dictators inevitably need conflict. This isn’t the Cold War.” That last line likely would rankle the man credited with forging détente with the Soviet Union and opening Communist China. The weight of Mr. Kissinger’s words was amplified by the contrast with President Zelenksy’s address to open Davos, where he warned that Russia is a practitioner of “brute force” that “does not talk, it kills.”The Kasparov-Kissinger spat brings into focus one of the hot button issues of the war: Is it in embattled Ukraine’s interests to cede territory in exchange for an end to the fighting? Will a concession to an unjustified aggressor forestall or catalyze future conflict?This debate between statesmen was rehearsed by ink-stained wretches as well. In that May 19 editorial, “The War in Ukraine Is Getting Complicated, and America Isn’t Ready,” the Times lectured that “it is still not in America’s best interest to plunge into an all-out war with Russia, even if a negotiated peace may require Ukraine to make some hard decisions.”The Gray Lady warns that “popular support for a war far from U.S. shores will not continue indefinitely,” and in the face of this hypothesized expiration date, Ukraine needs to trade in its territorial chits. Since “a decisive military victory” is not in the cards, territorial decisions should be on the agenda.The Kyiv Independent, a publication that has accrued more than 2 million Twitter followers during the fighting, issued a scathing rejoinder. The editors noted that the Times piece “immediately caused an uproar in Ukraine.” The Independent called that editorial a “veiled manifesto of appeasement” and a “betrayal of the free world’s values.”The Independent alleged that “the New York Times makes the same mistake that the Russians did when they attacked Ukraine in February. The Russians assumed that Ukrainians would welcome them or surrender.” It said the ostensible paper of record should “learn from its mistakes” in underestimating the fighters of Ukraine. “Ukraine will win, sooner or later, because no fascist state has ever truly prevailed over a free country,” the Independent maintained. The idea of giving up territory is a nonstarter, as “Ukrainian society will never agree to any concessions.” Data disclose that “82 percent of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine should not give up territory for peace under any circumstances.” The contours of Ukrainian capitulation are being carved out even as Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s east continues and cease-fire discussions between the two antagonists have gone dormant. A Russian airstrike killed 87 people in the town of Desna last week. Whether this is prophecy or bravado, the question of the war’s endgame has now emerged into public view and is being debated from Davos to the Donbas. The New York Times seems set to concede before the Ukrainians. As Mr. Kasparov would understand, “checkmate” is often both long in coming and a sudden surprise.

Checkmate? Epic Spat Erupts Between Kissinger and Kasparov, Among Others, Over the War in Ukraine

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