Citizens of the Czech Republic who want to fight on the side of Ukraine against Russian aggression will not face punishment in their homeland. As Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in Prague on the evening of Thursday, March 3, he agreed with President Milos Zeman that volunteers who decided to go to Ukraine to participate in the war with Russia would be released from punishment in case of criminal prosecution.
“At a meeting with Mr. President, we agreed that we can guarantee that people who want to go to Ukraine and fight on the side of Ukraine will not be punished in the form of removal of responsibility,” Fiala wrote on Twitter.
Citizens of the Czech Republic are in principle prohibited from serving in a foreign army. And, as the head of government noted, the issue of amending the relevant law is not currently being discussed. But as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Europeans with combat experience to support his country in repelling Russian aggression, some 400 volunteers have asked the Czech authorities to make an exception. The Czech Republic has been a member of the NATO defense alliance since 1999 and is less than 400 kilometers from Ukraine.
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On the night of February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a war against Ukraine, calling it a “special military operation in the Donbass” in order to protect people who “have been subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”
Putin’s claims of genocide have previously been refuted by both the European Union and the United Nations. Western politicians have accused the Russian president of lying. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia. Western governments have imposed sanctions on Russia.
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