He made this statement in an interview with BBC Ukraine.Pavel acknowledged that in the short term, Ukraine is unlikely to liberate all occupied territories without significant losses, even with the support of the West."And of course, it is very unfair from the West’s side to push Ukraine into immediate liberation of all territories. Because we do not want to annihilate the Ukrainian people. We want them (Ukrainians) to survive. We want them to survive as an independent, sovereign country. And there is a price for restoring Ukraine as an independent and autonomous state... If this price is the agreement that part of the territory will be temporarily occupied, but without legal recognition of this fact, so be it," said the President of Czech Republic.At the same time, he emphasized that the world, and specifically the Czech Republic, will never recognize "these occupied territories as Russian by law."In response to BBC’s question about Crimea not being legally recognized as Russian, but remaining under Russian control for over 10 years, Pavel noted that actions to prevent a similar situation on other occupied territories have "medium-term and long-term goals" and are in the process of being developed."If we succeed, together with Ukraine, to restore its sovereignty over most of the territory, if we succeed in integrating Ukraine into the European Union's policies, restoring Ukraine after the war, gradually bringing it into the unified European market, raising the standard of living in Ukraine, then this will be a good signal for the people living in those occupied territories," he explained.Pavel also expressed his belief that Russia does not care about the population of the occupied territories as much as it does about its own people."I believe the occupied regions are a kind of burden for Russia, which is mostly used as a political tool. Look at Ossetia or Abkhazia in Georgia. These regions are much poorer than Russia, and the Russian authorities don’t even try to improve the living standards there because, for Russia, these are second-class citizens," he added.When asked whether the residents of the occupied territories, seeing a better life in Ukraine, could break free from Russian control, Pavel replied: "Sooner or later, who knows." He also noted that it is unclear what kind of regime Russia will have in 20-30 years since "Vladimir Putin will not be in power forever."