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The heads of parliament of the Visegrad Group countries, comprising Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, agree that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, the head of the Czech lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová said after their meeting in Prague on Thursday.

The V4 parliament heads met at the Liechtenstein Palace to discuss energy, migration policy, and Russia’s war on Ukraine. The meeting, which came two days after the V4 summit of prime ministers, was also attended by the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk.

Ms. Pekarová Adamová also said she regretted the differences in the V4 countries’ views on the conflict as well as statements by some of the V4 leaders regarding Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Belgium will support the Czech initiative to buy artillery ammunition for Ukraine from outside the European Union at a cost of 200 million euros. The deliveries could reach the country, which has been resisting Russian military aggression for over two years, by the end of March. In addition to Belgium, 15 other states have pledged to support the initiative financially, including Britain, Denmark, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands. President Emmanuel Macron said at the Paris summit earlier this week that France will also be involved in the project.

The Czech lower house on Wednesday approved a bill on same-sex unions. The law should give same-sex couples the same rights as those of heterosexual married couples with the exception of adopting children. The only case in which homosexuals will be able to adopt a child is if one of them is the child’s biological parent. Due to protests from conservative lawmakers the same-sex unions will technically be called “partnerships”. The bill was approved in its third and final reading on Wednesday and will now go to the Senate for debate and will need to be signed into law by the president before coming into effect. Of the 176 MPs present, 123 voted in favour of the bill.

The Czech lower house has returned to a debate on same-sex marriage. The proposed draft agreement has raised controversy and in a previous debate the authors of the bill expressed readiness to make a concession and to call the same-sex union a “partnership” instead of “marriage”. However, they insist that same-sex couples should have the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Under the law, registered couples do not have joint property and are not entitled to a widow's or widower's pension after the loss of their partner. Registered couples are also not allowed to adopt children.