Czech president proposes NATO membership for Ukraine despite Russian occupation

By Ebad Ahmed

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AA) - Czech President Petr Pavel suggested that Ukraine could join NATO even if it does not reclaim all the territory currently occupied by Russia in the ongoing war.

"I don't think that full restoration of control over the entire territory is a prerequisite," Pavel told Czech newspaper Novinky a Pravo in an interview published Monday evening.

“If there is a demarcation, even an administrative border, then we can treat this administrative border as temporary and accept Ukraine into NATO within the territory it controls at that time,” he added.

Pavel cited the example of West Germany's inclusion in NATO in 1955, despite its division from Soviet-occupied East Germany, as a precedent for admitting an occupied country into the military alliance.

"Although part of Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union ... the rest was accepted into NATO," the Czech president said.

Pavel emphasized that this approach could allow Ukraine to join NATO without provoking direct conflict with Russia.

“There is both a technical and a legal solution to allow Ukraine to join NATO without bringing NATO into conflict with the Russian Federation,” he explained.

Earlier Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that there should be no "red lines" in Ukraine’s confrontation with Russia. He argued that unrestricted strikes on Russian targets would have negated the need for Ukrainian forces to enter the Kursk region.

Zelenskyy claimed that Ukrainian forces currently control approximately 1,250 square kilometers (about 480 square miles) of territory and 92 settlements in Kursk.