Communist boss, minister in spat over Azov brigade members' visit

The head of the Czech Communist Party has hit out against a planned visit to Prague by members of Ukraine’s Azov brigade on Wednesday. Kateřina Konečná said in an open letter to the foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, that the military unit represented the “worst of Ukrainian nationalism and neo-Nazism”.

For his part, Mr. Lipavský said that reading the letter he had wondered for which state Ms. Konečná had been elected. He said that if anyone was emulating the Nazis, it was Russia.

The BBC reported last month that the US had lifted a ban on weapons supplies and training to the Azov brigade, "whose origins were mired in controversy over alleged links to far-right groups".