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The presidents of the B9 countries - Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania – have condemned Monday's bombing of Ukrainian cities as a war crime. In a joint statement, made public by Prague Castle, they note that war crimes and crimes against humanity are not subject to any statute of limitations and are subject to the jurisdiction of courts around the world, stressing that every effort must be made for the perpetrators of these crimes to be brought to justice. The statement also calls on Russia to immediately stop attacks on civilian targets.

Czech writer Radka Denemarková, together with her German translator Eva Profousová, were awarded the Brücke Berlin prize in the German capital on Monday for the book Hours of Lead (Hodiny z olova), thus becoming the first Czechs to receive the literary and translation award.

The German translation of the 2018 novel has also had success in Austria, where Ms Denemarková is set to also collect the Literary Prize of Styria on November 8, the Czech News Agency reports.

The head of the Czech Security Information Service (BIS), Michal Koudelka, warned at a conference on Monday that there is still a danger of Russian subversive operations in Czechia and that the state must be prepared to face them, the Czech News Agency reports. Mr Koudelka said that Russia is still capable of launching operations such as the explosion of the Vrbětice munitions dump in 2014, allegedly orchestrated by Russian intelligence.

However, he also said that the potential for Russian intelligence operations in Czechia had been substantially undermined by the expulsion of a significant number of diplomats in the country’s embassy in Prague.

He and other attendees at the conference agreed that one of the most significant ongoing threats is Russian disinformation. The head of Czech Military Intelligence, Jan Beroun, said that the intelligence community would profit from clearer legislation when it came to dealing with disinformation.

Both men spoke at a conference focused on Russian power and influence in Europe.

Leading Czech politicians and official channels have condemned Monday’s wave of Russian rocket strikes against Ukrainian cities. The Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the attacks as “another display of Russian cynicism and barbarism” and called on the Russian Federation to “stop this senseless war!”

Prime Minister Petr Fiala stated that the attacks on Ukrainian cities are not aimed at damaging military infrastructure. “It’s about murdering the civilian population and spreading fear,” he said. Deputy Premier Ivan Bartoš called the bombings “nothing else than a vengeful war crime” and offered his condolences to the victims. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security, Pavel Fischer, said that the extensive rocket strikes against Ukraine show these are not accidents but an intentional “war crime”.

The wave of Russian strikes came just two days after an explosion damaged the Kerch bridge, which connects mainland Russia with the occupied Crimean peninsula. In a Monday speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Kerch bridge explosion a “terrorist attack”, blaming Ukraine for the incident. He threatened a “harsh response” if such attacks were to continue. The BBC reports that Ukraine's air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Russia launched 83 missiles of which than 43 had been shot down by air defences.