Did Czech President Petr Pavel say that sooner or later Ukraine will lose the war and Russia will win? No, that's not true: It's not Pavel's real voice in the TikTok video, and the video description admits it.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) by @pepekarna on TikTok on October 4, 2023. It shows Pavel saying (translated to English from Czech by Lead Stories staff):
Sooner or later Ukraine will lose this fight and Russia will win. We need to look at this realistically. It is necessary to take into account that Russia is a large country which has legitimate security interests in its immediate border area. More than that, fuel prices, food prices, perhaps energy prices rising again, are starting to burn us. And the war in Ukraine seems to be really weighing on us a bit.
The TikTok user wrote under the post (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff): "Czech President Petr Pavel said [it] in a parallel universe. This is fake news about a real event that didn't happen, but could have. #petrpavel #presidentpavel #ukraine #joke"
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Oct 31 09:14:52 2023 UTC)
The images of the TikTok video come from an interview that public Czech Radio did with Pavel, published on the radio network's YouTube channel on October 2, 2023. Some questions did concern the Russia-Ukraine war, but Pavel mentioned neither Russia winning the war nor the rising prices for fuel, food and energy.
