Red Army soldiers commemorated at Prague’s Olšany memorial

Senate Speaker Miloš Vystrčil, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský and members of the Sokol organisation were among those who gathered on Monday to commemorate the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Czechoslovakia at the Red Army memorial at Prague’s Olšany Cemetery on Monday.

Ukraine was also represented. Namely by its chargé d'affaires to Czechia, Vitaliy Usaty, who noted that there are also many Ukrainian soldiers among the Red Army combatants who lay buried at the cemetery. He also likened the politics of contemporary Russia to fascism.

Both Mr Usaty and Mr Vystrčil also drew parallels with the contemporary situation to that faced by Europe during the Munich Agreement in 1938, which saw the continent’s great powers pressure Czechoslovakia to cede territory to Nazi Germany, stating that concessions must not be made to an aggressor again.

Foreign Minister Lipavský said that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is claiming the victory over Nazi Germany as its own and thus justifying its own aggressive imperial policies.