Shared responsibility: Czech leaders call for national resilience as war risk grows
In the wake of repeated violations of NATO airspace, the Western allies have signaled their readiness to defend “every inch of NATO territory”, warning Putin that the next Russian fighter jet that violates NATO airspace will be shot down. As Europe bolsters its defenses and prepares for possible conflict – Czech leaders are bringing home the message that security and defense are a responsibility shared by all citizens.
President Petr Pavel, who traditionally attended the NATO Days in Mošnov as chief commander of the Czech Armed Forces at the weekend, made use of the opportunity to warn Czechs about the gravity of the security situation in light of Russia’s repeated incursions into NATO airspace.
“Vladimir Putin’s regime will behave as we allow it to. If we only verbally condemn, or downplay Russia’s behavior, then the provocations will continue. I have had the opportunity to deal with Russian representatives, both military and political, in the wake of similar incidents in the past. I always asked them why they were doing something that could trigger a conflict. And the reply was always the same: “Because we can”. They are simply testing our resilience. They are testing our determination to defend ourselves. And I think that we must be absolutely firm in that if rules are broken, we must respond adequately. Including militarily. Because Russia will very quickly realize that it has crossed the red line. Unfortunately, that means balancing on the edge of conflict. But retreating before evil is simply not possible.”
Chief of the General Staff Karel Řehka also warned that Europe is edging closer to open conflict stressing the need for Czechia to respond to the new security needs. “On a scale from one to ten, where one means lasting peace and ten means war, we are approaching eight,” the general said in an interview with Czech Television. He said Czechia needs to respond faster.
“Building defense structures is a continuous process. And it’s not just about the army. The whole state must prepare for defense, every ministry, the entire society. I think that the way we have procedures set up today and the way we feel only a small sense of urgency in the Czech Republic simply does not correspond to the intelligence reports we receive regarding existing security threats. We should be acting more quickly. It’s not just about the army, it’s not about simply putting money into defense, it’s about the whole mindset of the leadership and the public, about changing legislation and rules quickly enough so that we are able to spend money effectively. And that relates to absolutely everything, from construction to zoning and other things.”
Chief of the General Staff Karel Řehka welcomed the rise in defense spending, but he stressed that in addition to modern technology the army needs manpower.
“It’s mainly about people, of course, because in the end it is people who decide wars, not technology—though they need technology for their work. Today the army under my command has about 24,000 professional soldiers and just under 5,000 active reserves. But given the commitments we made at the last Alliance summit, we will need between 37,000 and 40,000 professional soldiers.
“Of course, we must seriously consider whether this number can be recruited quickly enough and kept sustainable in the long term. Personally, I think that in the future we need a new model of military service—I don’t mean a blanket return of compulsory conscription. The models differ, and ideally it would be on a voluntary basis, but reform will be inevitable. Because the model of the Czech Army today was created for a different security situation. It is a small, high-quality professional army, with just a handful of voluntary reserves. Given the changing situation I think we will need a model where the reserves will have a much larger role and we will have to introduce some new form of military service, different from what we have today.”
President Petr Pavel said that reflecting the country’s and Europe’s changing security needs is something that concerns each and every one of us.
“It is necessary to realize that security and defense are truly the responsibility of us all. It is not just about people in uniform—whether in the uniform of the police, the army, or other security forces. All of us must keep in mind that the safety of our children, our grandchildren, the way of life we lead, requires protection. Because if we don’t defend it, we can lose it very quickly. And each of us can contribute to this. Above all by supporting efforts to increase defense capability, to strengthen internal security, but also to increase the resilience of each and every one of us—because on the resilience of each individual, each community, will depend whether we can cope with various crises, including the worst one, and that is war.”
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Spolu) recently also announced new plans stemming from Ukraine’s experience in the war with Russia. He said that the government has decided to establish a coordination group for the country’s anti-drone defense. The group will include experts from the ministries of defense, interior and transport, as well as representatives of the army and police.
