Czech President Petr Pavel has warned that Ukraine has roughly two months to revive peace talks with Russia before Vladimir Putin may sharply escalate the war. Speaking at a Nato summit in Ankara, Pavel — a retired general and former chairman of Nato's military committee — said Putin could order a general mobilisation once Russia's parliamentary elections are held, after which the window for negotiations would rapidly narrow. The warning matters because a broad mobilisation would represent a significant intensification of the conflict, and Pavel suggested the coming weeks offer a limited opportunity for Western pressure to push Moscow towards talks.

Pavel said Putin was unlikely to declare mobilisation before the parliamentary elections on 20 September, as such a move would probably be deeply unpopular with Russian voters, but that the opportunity for diplomacy would shrink once the vote was over. He argued that Western allies should use the period to increase pressure on the Kremlin, and that continued Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory combined with sustained Western support for Kyiv could make Moscow more willing to negotiate. His remarks follow a series of increasingly ambitious Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow, oil infrastructure in western Siberia and fuel supplies bound for occupied Crimea, with Pavel stressing that Nato must keep supplying Ukraine while maintaining diplomatic pressure.