Czech President allows 60 Czech citizens to join Ukraine's Armed Forces

Sixty Czech citizens have attained official permission from Prague to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Source: Novinky reports that this was announced by Filip Platos, President Petr Pavel's spokesman, as reported by European Pravda Details: The spokesman noted that so far, Petr Pavel has approved 60 applications from Czech citizens who asked to be allowed to defend Ukraine as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in agreement with the ministries of defence, interior and foreign affairs.

A total of 181 such requests have been received.

Czech citizens are prohibited from joining a foreign army without the permission of the Czech president, which is a criminal offence. However, for those who have already done so, there is an opportunity to obtain permission retroactively. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by commenting that the Czech president "clearly does not need" the citizens he released as volunteers to Ukraine.

Officially, four Czechs  fighting for Ukraine as volunteers were killed in action. Among them is Karel Kucera, who was posthumously awarded the Medal for Heroism by President Petr Pavel on Czech independence day. Karel travelled to Ukraine without official permission, having not received consent from then-President Milos Zeman.

This week, it became known that two more volunteers who fought for Ukraine - one from Georgia and one from Sweden - were killed at the front.

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