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People across the Czech Republic are marking the legacy of playwright, dissident, leading figure of the Velvet Revolution and the country’s first post-communist president, Václav Havel, on the 14th anniversary of his death.

The Václav Havel Library in Prague will remember Havel with humour and irony by staging one of his most successful plays, Vernissage. At the Havels’ family tomb at Vinohrady Cemetery, Senate Speaker Miloš Vystrčil and other members of the upper chamber of parliament will pay tribute to the former head of state. Commemorations will also take place at Hrádeček in the Trutnov region, where Havel had a country cottage and where he died on 18 December 2011 at the age of 75.

A playwright and former dissident, Havel was one of the key figures in the collapse of the communist regime in 1989. He served as the ninth and final president of Czechoslovakia and, after the country’s dissolution, as the first president of the Czech Republic. After leaving office in February 2003, he continued to comment on political and public affairs at home and abroad. His plays continue to be staged even 14 years after his death.

Czech President Petr Pavel spoke over the phone on Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. They discussed continued support for Ukraine which will be the main topic of Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels and progress in peace negotiations. According to the Czech president’s office, both leaders agreed it is in their shared interest for any peace agreement to deliver a dignified peace for Ukraine.

“President Zelensky thanked the Czech Republic and its citizens for their long-term support,” Prague Castle said. Zelensky last spoke with President Pavel two months ago. At that time, the presidents also discussed the Czech ammunition initiative, whose future is uncertain following the appointment of a new government led by Andrej Babiš (ANO).

The Constitutional Court has annulled a legal provision that allowed separate enrolment of children from Ukraine into primary schools. The court upheld a petition by a group of senators who argued that the separate enrolments were discriminatory. In its ruling, the court criticised the unequal treatment of a particularly vulnerable group — refugee children — noting that the legislation complicated their access to education. Newly-appointed Education Minister Robert Plaga (ANO) welcomed the court’s decision stressing that violating the principle of equal access to education is unacceptable.

The Czech Republic does not question the need for European Union support for Ukraine, but would prefer to have it financed in the same way as until now, without extraordinary guarantees from Prague, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said at a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies’ European Affairs Committee ahead of an upcoming European Council summit.

EU leaders will decide at the summit between two proposed options for financing Ukraine in 2026 and 2027. The European Commission has put forward either an EU loan or a so-called reparations loan backed by frozen Russian assets.

According to Babiš, the Czech Republic could in principle support using frozen Russian assets to secure a loan for Ukraine to ensure the functioning of the state, but only under certain conditions. Belgium’s concerns must be fully taken into account, and any guarantees provided by member states must remain entirely voluntary, he said. Babiš added that it would make more sense to use frozen Russian assets for reparations after the end of the war.