Pavel Havlicek: Czechia mobilized unprecedented support for Ukraine
25.11.2022
Pavel Havlicek
What is Czech’s cooperation with Ukraine like today? Is its level sufficient? What сould be changed or added not only between Ukraine and Czech but also within pan-European projects? Newssky has asked Pavel Havlicek, who is a Research Fellow at the Association for International Affairs Research Centre in Prague to comment.
I would characterize the Czech-Ukrainian relations as historically best and outstandingly positive. Czechia and the current government have shown immense leadership in supporting Ukraine in these incredibly hard times. The support has emancipated in both political, diplomatic and security, and economic dimensions.
On the political and diplomatic level, it was the Czech PM Petr Fiala who was the first together with his Polish and Slovenian counterparts to travel to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskiy at the early stage of the war. Also, it was the Czech government that was the first one to conduct a bilateral meeting with their Ukrainian counterparts recently. Therefore, the political relations were never better in the recent history of both countries.
Apart from that, the Czech society mobilized unprecedented support for the refugees from Ukraine, and it is notable that Czechia accepted—per capita—the highest number of people seeking refuge. The Czechs and the business community also mobilized huge support for the armed forces of Ukraine, fundraising dozens of millions of CZK for drones, tanks, or other military equipment processed by the Czech Ministry of Défense and provided by the business community.
Finally, the Czechs are also doing everything possible to put Ukraine and the anti-Putin sanctions on the EU Presidency agenda and unite the European community in support. This is very important when including the Ukrainian representatives during EU Council meetings in various formats of relevant policy fields and areas.
Maryna Kovalchuk, Newssky, contributed
