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Russia is playing for time to get the upper hand in the war with Ukraine, and continued support from the West is crucial, Czech President Petr Pavel said at Thursday’s conference Diplomacy and Security held at the headquarters of the Czech Foreign Ministry. Russia’s victory would be our defeat, the president said, noting that Russia’s imperialist ambitions reach far beyond Ukraine’s borders.

The former head of NATO’s Military Committee said that Russia’s strategy was a drawn-out conflict which would give it time to top up both equipment and human resources. We are seeing massive weapons deliveries from North Korea and efforts to violate the sanctions against Russia, Pavel said.

He said Russia was dragging out the conflict so as to benefit from war fatigue and was waiting for the outcome of the US presidential election in the hope that America might halt military support to Kyiv.

The president also spoke about the disruption of the world order which he said is now evident almost everywhere. “Frozen conflicts are thawing in the Caucasus, and the wave of military coups in African countries, especially in the Sahel, is causing increasing concern. The explosive potential of the current crisis in the Middle East, sparked by Hamas' barbaric attack on Israel, is evident above all else," the president said.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic fell to 3.5 percent in October, with 260, 000 people on the dole, according to data from the Central Labour Office. The figure is still the lowest in the European Union. The highest unemployment was in the Ústí nad Labem region, while the lowest was in the Zlín, South Bohemia, Pilsen and Vysočina regions. According to the Central Labour Office there were  about 280,000 vacancies on the Czech labour market at the end of October.

Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan discussed measures aimed at curbing illegal migration along the Balkans route to Western Europe with his newly-appointed Slovak counterpart Šutajem Eštokem in Prague on Thursday. Both countries have introduced random checks on their southern and eastern borders so as to curb the flow of illegal migrants which the Slovak interior minister said had risen from 6,000 in 2022 to 46,000 in his country this year. Minister Rakušan praised cooperation between the Czech and Slovak police forces, but stressed the need for a broader European solution. He said Germany and Austria would be invited to the next Visegrad Group summit in order to hold a debate on a broader platform.

The Czech Senate has approved the government's austerity package, which aims to cut the growing deficit in public spending by CZK 150 billion by 2025. After a debate lasting roughly seven hours on Wednesday in which 32 senators spoke, votes were finally cast in the evening, with 53 of the 74 senators present voting to approve the package. The set of reforms now has to be reviewed and signed into law by President Petr Pavel. He has up to 15 days to veto the bill if he decides to do so.