Munich 1938, Alaska 2025? Prague protesters send message to Trump and Putin
Several tens of protesters gathered in front of the building of the American Embassy in Prague on Wednesday, ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The protest carries the name “Munich 1938, Alaska 2025? Don’t sell out Ukraine!”
In front of the American Embassy in Prague’s lesser town, Czech and Ukrainian flags were joined by signs, sending messages like “You reek of betrayal!” or “No Nobel Prize for appeasing evil,” in the direction of US President Donald Trump.
The commander in chief is meeting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in a high-stake summit over the future of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The protesters raise their concern, that the meeting could mount political pressure on Ukraine to make territorial concessions in order to bring the conflict to a close.
The action was organized by the Občanský rozcestník (‘Citizens' Signpost‘) initiative, with support of the associations Milion chvilek pro demokracii (‘Million Moments for Democracy’) and Kaputin. Their messaging suggests a parallel between the meeting in Alaska, and the Munich Agreement in 1938.
In the Bavarian capital, Great Britain, France, and Italy signed away Sudetenland, the border regions of Czechoslovakia, to Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, in an attempt to appease the German dictator’s expansionist tendencies.
Czechoslovakia was not made part of the decision-making process concerning its territory, which ultimately did not prevent the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Critics of the Alaska summit see a similar issue in the absence of Ukrainian representation.
European leaders, such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz insist that the Alaska meeting must respect and preserve European and Ukrainian security interests. Earlier this week, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský visited Ukraine and opened a new Embassy office in Dnipro. According to the Minister, Czechia is the first country to have diplomatic representation in the eastern part of Ukraine.
