Did Czech President Petr Pavel say that Russia will win the war in Ukraine? No, that's not true: An interview with the president by Czech public radio was edited so that the president's statement was taken out of context. Pavel did say the words in the interview, but not in that order or context.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by @pepekarna on February 4, 2024, under the title (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff) "Pavel can switch coats quickly." The caption (as translated) read:
@pepekárna Artificial intelligence has already reached Prague Castle. 'Russia will succeed, fully as it imagines, that is, it will control the entire territory of Ukraine. The strong really do, as President Putin has repeatedly said, do what they can, and the weak do what they must, what the strong allow them to do,' said Czech President Petr Pavel.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Feb 13 10:46:41 2024 UTC)
In the portion of the video shown on TikTok, Pavel can be heard saying the same words as the caption: "Russia will succeed, fully as it imagines, that is, it will control the entire territory of Ukraine. Indeed, as President Putin has said repeatedly, the strong do what they can, and the weak do what they must, what the strong allow them to do." Despite the reference to artificial intelligence in the caption, the voice of the president has not been artificially manipulated but rather cut and pasted and presented out of the original context.
The video on TikTok is an edited version of an interview (archived here) with Pavel conducted by the Czech Radiožurnál, the public radio station of the Czech Republic, published on January 29, 2024. From the 29:08 to 30:04 mark, Pavel says (as translated):
In the event that Russia succeeds as fully as it thinks it will, that is, it will control the entire territory of Ukraine. Then it means that Russia will be stuck in all its intentions, which means that it is possible to invade a sovereign country and take by force what it wants. That there are no repercussions in international law and that, as President Putin repeatedly says - the strong do what they can, and the weak do what they must, what the strong allow them to do. And if we don't want to live in such a world, and I think most of our citizens don't want to live in such a world, it is necessary to stand up against this evil. That is why we support Ukraine.
During the interview (archived here), looking back at his first term as president after being elected in March 2023, Pavel also referred to misinformation. He argued that the government was not doing even the bare minimum in the fight against disinformation.
