Czech President Pavel: Ukraine talks without Europe are 'unthinkable'

Pavel's statement

Czech President Petr Pavel said that peace talks on Ukraine without Europe's participation are 'unthinkable', since they concern the security of the entire continent. His words were reported by Ukrinform, as noted by Gazeta.Ru.

'We are talking about European security as a single whole'

'I consider it absolutely fundamental that Europe be present at the peace talks on Ukraine, because we are talking not only about peace for Ukraine — we are talking about European security as a single whole. It is unthinkable that there would be no European representatives at such talks,' Pavel said. He clarified that he means Europe specifically, not the European Union: he is referring to all countries of the continent, including those that are not part of the political union.

Context: the state of relations with Russia

The Czech president's statement came against the backdrop of Moscow's assessment of Russian-European relations. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Europe had practically frozen relations with Russia down to zero, and that this approach had led to instability and conflicts. According to him, the sides have almost returned to the situation of the Cold War era: instead of discussing problems peacefully, they are sinking into a 'very confrontational environment'.

What is known about the content of the talks

Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky's office revealed what should be enshrined in the peace agreement. The details of this position are not given in available publications, so it is not yet possible to judge the specific points of the future agreement. At the same time, Pavel's statement records the position of one European country at a stage when the format of the talks and the participation of European representatives in them remain a matter of discussion.