Czech President: Ukraine Has Two Months to Restart Peace Talks or Risk Escalation

Ukraine has two months to restart peace talks or risk Russia escalating the war, Czech President Petr Pavel said, according to The Telegraph.

"I believe that the window is there for us to keep pushing and giving Russia a clear message that we are willing to start negotiations," he said, adding that this should be done before the State Duma elections scheduled for September 20.

"So I believe that we have to really keep pushing hard, give Ukraine what they need to be successful in their defence, and at the same time to exert all diplomatic skills to convince Russia that they have no other choice than to negotiate."

Pavel also called for further militarizing Europe, by ramping up the production capacity of air defense systems, for instance.

Russia has repeatedly said that it is open to negotiations on Ukraine. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that "it would be preferable to achieve all our goals through peaceful diplomatic negotiations." According to him, Moscow is counting on the continuation of US mediation efforts and hopes that the European Union "will not be able to completely destroy these prospects."