Czechia's Pavel suggests Ukraine's NATO bid could succeed despite occupation of part of territory

Ukraine's accession to NATO should not depend on whether Kyiv controls the entire territory, the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said in an interview with Novinky.

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According to Pavel, in the coming years, Ukraine will be able to agree on peace with Russia, the agreement may mean that Moscow occupies part of its territory for a long time, but without the consent of the democratic states to change the borders.

"I believe that the complete restoration of control over the entire territory is not a necessary prerequisite. If there is a demarcation, even an administrative border, then we can accept this administrative border as temporary and accept Ukraine into NATO on the territory that it will control at that time," said the Czech leader.

He cited the example of Germany, which became a member of the Alliance in 1955 despite the occupation of part of the country by the Soviet Union.

"Therefore, I believe that there is both a technical and a legal solution to allow Ukraine to join NATO without bringing the Alliance into conflict with Russia," Pavel added.

On July 9-11, a summit on the 75th anniversary of NATO was held in Washington. At it, Ukraine was not invited to join, but the F-16s were promised this summer, as well as additional air defense systems, 40 billion euros in military aid for the next year, and the transition of a part of the Ramstein format from the USA to NATO.

At the summit of the Alliance, the European Union and more than 20 countries also concluded the Ukrainian Treaty: in the medium term, Ukraine will be helped to build up its army to defend itself and deter new aggression.