US will ‘lose face before world’ if it abandons Kyiv, says ex-Ukraine president

Exclusive: Leonid Kuchma describes history behind Putin’s attack as new edition of his 2003 book Ukraine Is Not Russia is published

Ukraine’s former president Leonid Kuchma has warned that the US “will lose face before the entire world” if it abandons Kyiv, and said mistakes by the west contributed to Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion last year.

In his first interview with a western publication since 2015, Kuchma described Putin as a career KGB operative. “It’s his profession, with everything that implies,” he said, adding: “People say his obsession with Ukraine is a kind of mania or mental disorder. Maybe it’s true.”