Czech President Petr Pavel believes that without Russia and China at the same table, it will be impossible to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

"But without Russia and China, there really won't be any peace talks at the negotiating table," he said in an interview with the national news agency ČTK.

He stressed that negotiations would not make sense if Russia approached them the way it has done so far, when in fact it imposed conditions of surrender.

Pavel has already said that he expects a certain shift in the war at the end of this year, perhaps at the beginning of next year. According to him, the development will be determined by the fact that this year there will be a large number of important elections in important countries, the first of which will be the presidential elections in the United States.