Did Czech Republic President Petr Pavel come clean and say that the West manipulates Ukraine and tempts it to the worst because it wants to use Ukraine as a tool in its own fight against Russia? No, that's not true: While Pavel did say that in his speech at the Media and Ukraine conference, that was only part of his sentence.
Pavel said: "Putin has inculcated the identity of the victim in the Russian nation through propaganda. He has convinced the Russian people that they have reason to feel threatened and that they have every right to defend themselves against this threat. He has lied that the West is manipulating Ukraine and inciting it to do the worst because it wants to use Ukraine as a tool in its own fight against Russia."
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok published by @pepekarna on June 23, 2023, under the title "Pavel came clean." It opened (translated into English by Lead Stories staff):
The West manipulates Ukraine and tempts it to do the worst because it wants to use Ukraine as a tool in its own fight against Russia
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jun 28 12:29:28 2023 UTC)
The conference was hosted on June 22, 2023, by Czech Radio on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of radio broadcasting in the Czech Republic. Pavel was the opening speaker. When Czech Radio started broadcasting in 1923, then Czechoslovakia became the second country, after Britain, to broadcast regularly in Europe.
