According to Pavel, whom the newspaper describes as one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion, it is time for Ukrainians and their supporters to face what he says is reality.
“The most likely result of the war will be, (…) that part of the Ukrainian territory will be under Russian occupation, temporarily,” said Pavel, who is now visiting the United States. According to him, there are “a number of examples” of territories that are temporarily in the possession of Moscow.
According to Pavle, neither Ukraine nor Russia can expect to achieve their maximalist goals. “Talking about the defeat of Ukraine or the defeat of Russia will simply not happen,” he added, adding that “the end will be somewhere in between.”
Pavel recently spoke about the fact that Ukraine will probably have to accept the fact that Russia will occupy part of its territory for a long time in an interview for Fairpress. “If peace talks take place, we will very likely be talking about Russia occupying a part of Ukrainian territory for a long time. From the point of view of democratic countries that claim to respect international law and the UN Charter, it should happen that we will respect the agreement between the warring parties, but we will not accept the change of international borders based on aggression. We will consider the territories occupied by Russia as temporarily occupied during the restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty over the territory it now controls,” Pavel said in PoliTalk Novinek.
He reminded that Russia is a huge country with a large nuclear arsenal and is capable of leading a conflict in Ukraine for years. “So if the price for ending the conflict should be some temporary solution that will be a compromise, then I think it’s good to go this way,” he added.
“We can see that Ukraine is not able to take back all of its territory at the moment, that is a reality,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský also admitted. On the other hand, according to him, this does not mean that Ukraine is being dictated to give something from its territories to Russia, thereby confirming the claims of the aggressor.
Kyiv wants to return the territory, including Crimea
Kiev demands the return of all territory occupied by Russia, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Russia, on the other hand, wants Ukraine to formally give up the territory it claims – including four regions only partially controlled by Russian forces.
The majority of leaders in the West publicly repeat that the form of the future settlement of relations with Russia should be decided by Kiev, not the European Union or NATO, the NYT recalled.
The future of Ukraine will be the main topic of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi will appeal for greater military and political support during his speech here on Wednesday. Also on Thursday in Washington, he will present the “victory plan” to US President Joe Biden and then publish it.
Zelensky, who previously ruled out direct talks with Russia, softened his stance in the summer and indicated that direct talks could begin in November. However, he did not back down from the demand that Russia leave the entire Ukrainian territory.
