Two scholars from Ukraine and the Czech Republic are urging Taiwan to prepare
for a possible Chinese invasion well ahead of time by stockpiling weapons and
training civilians and reservists.

Speaking at the 2022 Taipei Security Dialogue, Yurii Poita of the
Ukraine-based Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, said an
important lesson from the Russian invasion of Ukraine was that the country's
leadership "didn't expect a full scale invasion -- and that ended up costing
lives.

He also praised Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) for the crucial
supplementary role it has played in assisting its regular armed forces, but
said those forces were not ready when the conflict began.

Jakub Janda, director of the Prague-based European Values Center for Security
Policy, agreed with Poita, saying that the United States rightly warned of a
looming Russian invasion.

He adds the alert could have saved thousands of Ukrainian lives if only Kyiv
had made the necessary preparations in a more timely manner.