Czech foreign minister: West ‘should not dictate’ peace terms to Kyiv as Ukraine defends all of Europe

“Ukrainians made the clear choice they didn’t want to be part of Moscow’s empire,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told The Guardian.

He added that the West should provide Ukraine with military, financial, and humanitarian help in the long term because its battle against Russia also protects Europe. According to Lipavsky, in Russia’s war against Ukraine, the UN principles of territorial integrity and the international rules-based order are at stake.

“Putin wants to destroy the principle that the borders of states are not changed by brute force,” he said.

Lipavsky also blamed Russia for a missile landing in the Polish village of Przewodow that killed two people during a massive nationwide Russian attack against Ukraine on Nov. 15.

Jakub Kumoch, head of the Polish president’s International Policy Bureau, said Poland has evidence it was a Ukrainian air defense missile.

“More than 100 Russian rockets on Tuesday were flying towards Ukraine,” and the country had the right to defend itself, explained Lipavsky.

According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Western countries had given him "signals” that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought direct talks with Ukraine.

Zelensky said in his video address on Nov. 7 that he was ready to hold negotiations with Russia only on conditions of the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity in compliance with the UN charter, compensation for damages, as well as the punishment of all those involved in war crimes committed in Ukraine.

On Nov. 5, the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration was privately urging Ukraine’s leadership to demonstrate its readiness to start negotiations with Russia so that Western countries could keep supporting Ukraine.