Czech President Pavel suggests Ukraine's NATO accession before full de-occupation

The politician said this in an interview with Novinky a Pravo.

“I believe that the full restoration of control over the entire territory is not a prerequisite (for Ukraine's accession to NATO - ed.). If there is a demarcation, even an administrative border, then we can consider this administrative border temporary and accept Ukraine into NATO on the territory that it will control at that time,” Pavel said.

The Czech President reminded that Germany joined NATO when its eastern part was still controlled by the USSR.

“Let's look at Germany, for example. Germany was divided, which was not accepted by all Western countries. And although part of Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union, Germany, that is, the part of it, was accepted into NATO, and this was in 1955. So I believe that there is both a technical and a legal solution to allow Ukraine to join NATO without bringing NATO into conflict with the Russian Federation,” Pavel said.

The Czech president suggested that Ukraine could join NATO after the hot phase of the war ends, and that the United States, China, and the EU should facilitate peace talks.

“If there are peace talks, we will most likely talk about Russia occupying a part of the territory of Ukraine for a long time, and from the point of view of democratic countries that recognize and respect international law and the UN Charter, it should happen that we will respect the agreements between the warring parties, but we do not recognize the change of internationally recognized borders through aggression,” the president added.

According to the politician, democratic countries should consider the territories occupied by Russia to be only temporarily occupied until Ukraine regains its sovereignty over them.

• On July 10, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini said that his country supports Ukraine's integration efforts to join NATO, but that consideration of this issue will be possible after the war is over.
• However, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance would be “a guarantee of the beginning of World War III.”