Ukraine summons Czech representative over "shameful statements" by parliamentary speaker

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Czech chargé d'affaires for talks over what it described as unacceptable statements made by Czech parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura.

Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was commenting on a statement by Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alena Schillerová, who said that Vasyl Zvarych, Ukraine's Ambassador to the Czech Republic, had been summoned to the Czech Foreign Ministry on 5 January. Prague is seeking an explanation for his reaction to a New Year's address by Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Tomio Okamura.

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

He added that Ukraine values its strategic partnership with Czechia and is grateful to the Czech people for their unwavering solidarity since the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion.

In the meantime, Tykhyi stressed that the "shameful statements" of individual politicians should not harm the productive cooperation between the two countries.

In his New Year's speech, Okamura, the leader of the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party, spoke out against providing assistance to Ukraine and referred to a so-called "Zelenskyy junta".

Ukraine's ambassador in Prague, Vasyl Zvarych, criticised Okamura's remarks targeting Ukraine and its leadership.

However, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said he did not consider it appropriate for the ambassador of a foreign state to publicly assess statements made by one of Czechia's highest constitutional officials.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected his Czech counterpart's criticism and defended Zvarych.