Czech President: Ukraine can join NATO despite occupied territories

Ukraine can join NATO although it doesn’t currently control all of its territory, in the view of Czech President Petr Pavel, as reported by Novinky and Pravo. Full control over the occupied areas doesn’t have to be a “mandatory condition” for joining the Alliance.

“If there is demarcation, even of an administrative border, we can accept this administrative border as temporary and admit Ukraine to NATO based on the territory it controls at that moment,” Pavel explained. 

The Czech President pointed out that Germany had joined NATO in 1955, when much of its territory was still ruled by the GDR communist regime under Soviet occupation. “So I believe there are both technical and legal solutions to allow Ukraine to join NATO without dragging NATO into conflict with the Russian Federation,” Pavel argued. 

This would only be possible after the start of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, the politician added. Nevertheless, Pavel remarked that the democratic world should only think of Russian occupied territories in Ukraine as being temporarily in that condition. 

Furthermore, a report comes from the country’s defense ministry that the Czech Republic is initiating a second project to procure artillery ammunition for Ukraine for 2025. Five Czech arms manufacturers are set to join the initiative, according to industry sources.