Czech minister made strange statements about peace conditions for Ukraine

The West “should not dictate” peace terms to Kyiv, the Czech Foreign Minister said. Jan Lipavsky says Western backers should recognize that Ukraine is at war with Russia to protect all of Europe.

Ukraine’s Western supporters “should not dictate peace terms” to Kyiv and should recognize that the country is actually fighting against Russia to protect all of Europe, the Czech foreign minister said during a trip to London.

Jan Lipavsky, whose country holds the EU presidency, also blamed Russia for what appeared to be an accidental Ukrainian air defense missile hit on Polish territory on Tuesday, as Moscow launched a strike on Ukraine with “more than 100 missiles.”

“We should not be in a position where we dictate other terms of peace to Ukraine if they are fighting for their own survival,” Lipavsky said, when asked if it is reasonable for Ukraine to demand restoration of the border before 2014.

At stake, the minister added, are the UN principles of territorial integrity and rules-based international order, the head of the Czech Foreign Ministry said.

Lipavsky’s comments came after some US officials, led by General Mark Milley, head of the US military, expressed concern that the winter’s fighting was likely to reach a stalemate and that Kyiv should consider resuming diplomatic talks with Russia.

But many in Europe rejected the proposal, believing that any end to the conflict would benefit Russia. Lipavsky, for example, insists that countries across the continent benefit from continued military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

“Ukrainians have made a clear choice: they don’t want to be part of Moscow’s empire,” Lipavsky said. He added that the West needed to help protect Ukraine in the long run because their actions against Russia “are also protecting us.”

Meanwhile, as The Guardian recalls, Prague has become the site of pro- and anti-government demonstrations in the past few weeks amid rising prices, which critics of the center-right government of the country want to link to the pro-Ukrainian policies of the Czech authorities.

Lipavsky, however, said he was confident that the Czech Republic would not back down on Kyiv’s support, and cited the country’s mid-20th-century history.

“Freedom doesn’t come for free,” the Czech minister said, adding that his country had suffered greatly in the 50 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. “So maybe this winter will be harsher. But what is the price we will pay for not being free? She’s much, much, much, much taller.”

The Czech foreign minister said it was “pretty easy to answer who is to blame” for the deaths of two Poles on Tuesday after a “stray” missile believed to have been fired by Ukraine’s S-300 air defense system fell on a farm about four miles from the border.

“More than 100 Russian missiles flew towards Ukraine on Tuesday with one clear goal: to destroy and disable the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, to kill people, to spread terror,” the Czech minister said, arguing that Kyiv had the right to defend itself against these strikes.

The Czech minister said the EU was “working on a ninth round” of economic sanctions against Russia, but did not provide details on what they might contain, reflecting disputes among bloc members about what targets they could negotiate and concerns over about the position of Hungary.

Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom The Guardian describes as the EU’s most sympathetic leader to Russia, is increasingly questioning more sanctions and campaigning publicly, describing them as bombs that punish Europeans financially. When the Czech minister was asked if Hungary was a problem, Lipavsky paused and tactfully called the country “a member of the EU and NATO.”

The Hungarian Foreign Minister was in the UK to receive the Magnitsky Prize for Human Rights for his part in the Czech Republic’s passing of a law last month that would allow the country to impose sanctions on Russia or other foreign entities that violate human rights, support terrorism or commit cybercrime.