Czech Communist MEP complains to Foreign Ministry about Azov fighters visiting Prague

Kateřina Konečná, a Czech Member of the European Parliament from the Communist Party of Czechia and Moravia, has complained to Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský about a planned visit to Prague by fighters from Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade and former soldiers of the Azov Regiment.

Source: iDNES, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: Konečná sent Lipavský a letter expressing her outrage. 

In the letter, which has been posted on Twitter (X), Konečná wrote: "The Azov Regiment represents the darkest aspects of Ukrainian nationalism and neo-Nazism. The regiment, formed by the racist and Right Sector member Andrii Biletskyi, known as the White Chief, is led by Denys Prokopenko, a neo-Nazi and Dynamo Kyiv football hooligan. The actions of this regiment have been condemned in the past by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights."

A meeting between Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade and their fellow Ukrainians is due to take place in Prague on Wednesday 31 July. The 3rd Assault Brigade, formed in late 2022 by Azov Regiment veterans, is part of the Ukrainian army's ground forces.

The meeting is part of the assault brigade's "tour of Europe", which saw its fighters visit Poland last week. Similar gatherings had been planned in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, but the organisers have cancelled them due to security concerns. On Friday 2 August, members of the brigade are due to arrive in Vilnius.

"The holding of an event that legitimises and encourages neo-Nazism should be vehemently denounced, including in Czechia," Konečná said. In her message, the MEP called on the Foreign Ministry and the government to express their disapproval of the planned event.

In his response to Konečná, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said he had doubts about which country she had been elected in as an MEP.

"It will soon be the next anniversary of Soviet tanks occupying Czechoslovakia. Those same tanks are now killing people in Ukraine, and Putin wants to go even further. If anyone resembles the Nazis – murdering and abducting children – it’s Russia," Lipavský emphasised.

After the Russian attack on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, Lipavský instructed his ministry to tell the Russian ambassador to Czechia that bombing children’s hospitals makes the Russians "the trash of humanity".

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