Kyiv dismissed comments from former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger that Ukraine should seek a negotiated peace plan with Russia to reduce the risk of sliding into another world war.
Mr Kissinger wrote in The Spectator that Europe's leaders “sleepwalked” into the First World War, resulting in the deaths of millions.
And the Treaty of Versailles, he wrote, left a more fragile power structure than the one it replaced.
Mr Kissinger asked if the war in Ukraine was at a similar turning point.
The war continues to drag on after Russia's February 24 invasion, and Ukraine applied to join Nato after Russia “annexed” the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” Mr Kissinger wrote.
“A peace process should link Ukraine to Nato, however expressed. The alternative of neutrality is no longer meaningful, especially after Finland and Sweden joined Nato.”
Mr Kissinger, who extended the policy of detente between the US and Soviet Union during the Cold War, this year proposed a ceasefire in which Russia would retreat to the front lines before its invasion but that Crimea would be the centre of “negotiation”, Reuters reported.
On Sunday he said the peace process should “confirm the freedom of Ukraine and to define a new international structure”.
Russia, he said, should be a part of that new order.
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The coffin of Valeriy Krasnyan is brought out of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv. Getty Images -
Repairmen work near a residential building damaged following a missile attack in Vyshgorod, outside of Kyiv. AFP -
An elderly man walks in front of a residential building damaged following a missile attack in Vyshgorod. AFP -
A boy kisses a dog while he charges his phone at the heating tent dubbed a Point of Invincibly in Bucha, Ukraine. AP -
A couple uses a laptop in the heating tent. AP -
Workers dig out a tire from the rubble of a destroyed storage building at a grain processing center so they can use it for repairs in Siversk, Donetsk region. Reuters -
The Chernihiv region found itself on the frontline of Russia's invasion in February, when Moscow's forces were attempting to quickly seize Kyiv. Getty -
Russia ultimately retreated from northern Ukraine to focus its attack on the east and south. Getty -
The city of Chernihiv on November 28, 2022 in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Getty -
A worker fits in new windows of a building in Chernihiv. Getty -
People receive food from AFAT - Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency in Chernihiv. Getty -
The people Chernihiv queue up for hot food. Getty -
Oleksandr Antonenko stands on a balcony of his apartment damaged by a recent Russian military strike in Kherson. Reuters -
Mr Antonenko and his mother Liudmyla inside their apartment recently damaged by a Russian military strike in Kherson. Reuters -
A woman walks in an underpass in Kyiv, on November 26, 2022. AFP -
Friends hug after the arrival of a train in the southern city of Kherson. Getty -
Residents sort through donated clothing at an aid centre in Kherson. Getty -
A Ukrainian soldier stands with a machinegun near Liman in the Donetsk region. AP -
Children attend a physical education class at Spilno School in Kyiv. Getty -
A woman embraces her friend, a soldier in the Ukrainian army, in Kherson. AFP -
Residents inspect a crater left by a Russian military strike in the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region. Reuters -
Resident Tetiana Reznychenko walks past a work by world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy, on the wall of a destroyed building in the Ukrainian village of Horenka. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery at Russian positions near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. AP -
A fisherman sails his boat on the Dnipro as black smoke rises from an oil reserve in Kherson. AFP
But Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Mr Kissinger understood “neither the nature of this war, nor its impact on the world order”.
“The prescription that the ex-secretary of state calls for, but is afraid to say out loud, is simple: appease the aggressor by sacrificing parts of Ukraine with guarantees of non-aggression against the other states of Eastern Europe,” Mr Podolyak wrote on Telegram.
“All supporters of simple solutions should remember the obvious: any agreement with the devil — a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories — will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world.”
Reuters contributed to this report
