Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon Czech envoy over anti-Ukrainian remarks

"On Monday, January 5, the Czech chargé d'affaires will be invited to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with unacceptable statements by the speaker of the Czech parliament. This step is a mirror response to the summoning of the Ukrainian ambassador in Prague," Tykhyi said.

He added that Ukraine values its strategic partnership with Czechia. The Ukrainian people are grateful to the Czechs for the solidarity they have shown since the first days of the full-scale aggression. Disgraceful statements made by individual politicians should not undermine relations between the two nations.

"We are convinced that disgraceful statements by individual politicians should not harm our productive bilateral cooperation, which strengthens both countries amid extraordinary security challenges facing Ukraine, Czechia, and the rest of Europe," Tykhyi said.

Okamura and the scandal

Czech parliament speaker Tomio Okamura, who holds anti-Ukrainian views, made disgraceful statements about Ukraine and its leadership in his New Year's address. He criticized Ukraine's accession to the EU, criticized the EU itself, and made offensive remarks about the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

After that, Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Zvarych responded to Okamura. The Ukrainian diplomat called Okamura's statement disgraceful and unworthy, and described the position of the leader of the anti-Ukrainian party, who managed to take the speaker's chair, as entirely copied from Russian propaganda narratives.

This triggered outrage in the government of the new Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš. In particular, the new Czech foreign minister, Petr Macinka, said he considered Zvarych's actions inappropriate. In contrast, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry openly and fully supported Zvarych's actions, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the ambassador had done everything absolutely right. However, Babiš's government did not stop there and planned to summon the Ukrainian ambassador on January 5.

At the same time, the central figure in the controversy, Okamura, also faced consequences. Opposition forces in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech parliament, have already announced plans to initiate proceedings to dismiss Okamura over the disgrace he caused.

This is not the first conflict between the new parliament speaker and lawmakers. Back in November last year, on his very first day in office as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Okamura demonstratively removed the Ukrainian flag from the Czech parliament. However, outraged Czech lawmakers immediately hung three new Ukrainian flags in the parliament building, and Okamura faced harsh criticism.