"He is frank in his assessment": Czech Foreign Ministry comments on Pavel's controversial statement on ending the war

The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has explained President Petr Pavel's statement that Ukraine should "accept" Russia's occupation of part of its territory, even though it will be temporary. The ministry noted that the head of state is "very frank" in his assessment of the military situation.

At the same time, Pavel supports the Peace Formula proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This was stated by Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Marian in a commentary to Radio Liberty on Wednesday, October 2.

"President Pavel is a great supporter of Ukraine, and he is also very active in promoting the Ukrainian Formula for Peace. As a former general and soldier, I think he is very frank in his military assessment of the situation," the diplomat said.

According to him, the Czech Republic holds the position that only Ukraine should decide what conditions are acceptable for ending the war. In addition, Prague fully supports the Ukrainian Formula for Peace.

Marian also noted that the ceasefire agreement can only be a temporary solution, as it was after the adoption of the Minsk agreements.

"If there is any ceasefire agreement, I am afraid it will be only temporary. We already saw this in 2014-2015 with the Minsk agreements. So, President Pawel may be right that there may be some temporarily occupied territories, but this does not change our approach," Marian said.

In an interview with The New York Times, Pavel said that under the "most likely" scenario of the end of the war, some Ukrainian territories may remain under Russian occupation. In his opinion, this situation may be temporary, but it does not mean that the occupation will not last for years.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, responding to Pavel's words, emphasized that temporary solutions will not restore full-fledged peace in Ukraine, but will only postpone the war. They reminded that the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine is one of the mandatory points of Zelenskyy's Peace Formula.

Later, the Czech president responded to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's outrage, noting that he had not said "anything he had not said before." In his opinion, hoping that the war will end with Ukraine's unequivocal success could be very dangerous for everyone.

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