Czech President Petr Pavel: If we allow Russia to emerge victorious from the war, we all lose

Czech President Petr Pavel believes that if Russia is allowed to emerge victorious from the war with Ukraine, it will be a defeat for the entire West. Pavel stated this in an interview with The Sunday Times, as reported by UNN.

Details

As Pavel stated, last month's revelations about secret negotiations between Russia and the United States, which proposed taking land from Ukraine, too vividly reminded him of the 1938 Munich Agreement, which initiated the dissolution and subjugation of Czechoslovakia.

If we allow Russia to emerge victorious from this conflict, we all lose.

He emphasized that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's initiation of the war reminded him of what his own country had experienced.

For Czechoslovakia, the German minority in the Sudetenland was used as a pretext. Vladimir Putin uses the same narrative.

According to him, many Czechs perceived 1938 as an outright betrayal by their allies, but this time, in Pavel's opinion, the West is not so much to blame for selling out the Ukrainians as it is for its constant lack of collective courage to uphold its own values.

What we are doing now, I would not call a betrayal of Ukraine. I would call it an unwillingness to defend the principles that we all supposedly stand for.

Pavel emphasized that after the war, Europe will need a new security treaty with Moscow – similar to the Helsinki Accords of 1975, but only after Russia recognizes the territorial sovereignty of all states and agrees to limit its own aggressive activities.

Recall

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a two-hour conversation with members of US President Steve Witkoff's and Jared Kushner's team. Peace agreements, security issues, and territorial aspects, including the withdrawal of Russian troops from Donbas, were discussed.