For thousands of years, wars have traditionally been fought to win, but this no longer applies to the West's current war against Russia, if it ever did. Pres. Petr Pavel told the Atlantic Council in mid-July that the vast majority of Nato countries agreed at the Washington summit that they must do all they can to help Ukraine not to lose the war. No one wants to defeat Russia, he said, but the objective isn't to encourage Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and others in their understanding that the West and the democracies are not as strong as they were a short time ago. It's not a war for Ukrainian territory, he said, but a war for principles. In that discussion and in a new interview with Novinky, Pavel spoke of accepting Ukraine into Nato under a peace agreement and allowing Russia to temporarily occupy part of Ukraine but not recognizing the occupied territory as Russian, as with East Germany or the Baltics during the Soviet period. So if Ukraine has become a war of principle, it's Cold War principle. [ Czech Republic West Germany GDR Ukrainian ]