News

Two groups of protestors gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Prague on Saturday afternoon, one in support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the other to demonstrate against Russophobia and the Czech-American agreement on defence cooperation.

The pro-Ukraine demonstration was organised by the activist group Kaputin, which has been organising similar events since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They had some items from previous demonstrations with them, such as a papier-mâché effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting on a toilet and another one where he is lying in a coffin.

According to the Czech News Agency, the pro-Russian demonstration was called by Tomáš Čermák, who was sentenced in March for supporting and promoting terrorism in a video released on Facebook last year. The demonstrators carried Czech, Russian and Soviet Union flags, and a banner with the inscription "Russia is not our enemy".

The Czech News Agency reports that there were roughly three dozen people in each group.

A commemorative event for the victims of the village of Lidice, who were murdered by the Nazis 81 years ago on 10 June, 1942, and the village burnt to the ground, took place on Saturday on the site where the village formerly stood. The event began with a mass led by the Archbishop of Prague, Jan Graubner, on the foundations of St. Martin's Church, which was also destroyed in the massacre. The commemoration was attended by several hundred people, including Czech President Petr Pavel, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová, the head of the Czech Trade Union Confederation Josef Středula, and other dignitaries.

The opposition parties in the Czech Parliament have criticized the government for supporting the EU agreement that would see countries either accept a share of asylum-seekers or pay into a fund managed by Brussels to care for migrants. ANO party MP Jana Mračková Vildumetzová said Interior Minister Vít Rakušan had squandered the former government’s valiant fight against migrant quotas and a redistribution of migrants. The Freedom and Direct Democracy party led by Tomio Okamura said the interior minister did not have a mandate to nod to such an agreement and called for a special session of Parliament on the issue. Minister Rakušan stressed that countries unwilling to accept migrants would only have to make a financial contribution to those who do and moreover pointed out that Czechia has already taken in a large number of migrants from Ukraine.

A further drop in the water level of the destroyed Ukrainian Kakhovka dam should not present a nuclear safety threat in the coming weeks or months, according to the head of the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety Dana Drábová. Water from the dam is used to cool the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Drabova said the plant’s reactors are now shut down and cooling is provided from a special tank. Moreover, she said past stress tests conducted at the plant had showed that it could be cooled even without water in the Kakhovka dam.