PRAGUE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won strong backing from the Czech Republic on Friday (Jul 7) on a tour of several North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states to drum up support for Kyiv’s bid to join the military alliance.
Days before a NATO summit, Zelenskyy, in Prague after visiting Bulgaria and before heading to Turkey, made a new call for long-range weapons from Kyiv’s allies including the United States to help defeat Russian forces waging war on Ukraine.
NATO, which meets in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius from Jul 11 to 12, is divided over how fast Kyiv should join because of concerns over any move that might take the alliance closer to war with Russia.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said his country would welcome Ukraine joining the European Union, and that it supported its accession to NATO “as soon as the war is over”.
“I am convinced that the future of Ukraine is in the European Union, the future of Ukraine is in NATO, and this will ensure that a situation like the one we are experiencing in Europe will not happen again. The Czech Republic is ready to be of maximum assistance,” Fiala told a joint press conference.
“I hope, I believe, that President Zelenskyy will be able to attend the summit in Vilnius in person, and I expect that all the allies in the North Atlantic Alliance will clearly support Ukraine in its aspirations for membership, and the president can certainly count on the vote of the Czech Republic.”
The Czech Republic has been a strong backer of Kyiv by providing military aid and other help, and Fiala promised more attack helicopters and hundreds of thousands more large-calibre ammunition rounds.
Zelenskyy welcomed the “new, powerful, very timely defence package” but said more weapons were needed as Kyiv tries to push Russian forces who still occupy swathes of territory after launching a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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