Czech Republic investigates its citizens’ involvement in Donbas war
The Czech Republic is investigating the involvement of at least 10 of its citizens in combat in support of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR & DPR) in eastern Ukraine.
The Czech news outlet Denik N reported that a Czech by the name of Pavel K traveled to the Donbas through Russia at 22 years of age, and stayed there between the summer of 2015 and May 2016.
The news outlet would not disclose the suspects’ names or cities of origin before the trial, in order to protect their relatives.
Adam Basny, Deputy Head of the High Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prague, confirmed the reports and said that one Czech citizen had been charged with terrorism in February 2018, Radio Svoboda writes.
“He was accused of committing a crime recognized by the law as an act of terror, for active armed activity as part of the illegal separatist structure called the Donetsk People’s Republic (whose goal is to violate the primary political and economic structure of sovereign and independent Ukraine by controlling its territory), against the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Basny noted.
The representative of the prosecutor’s office declined to confirm the name of the accused, citing the country’s laws which prohibit giving the media information to identify suspects.
Basny also confirmed that another Czech citizen is being investigated on similar charges.
Heorhiy Tuka, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs, said recently that all foreign “tourists” who have travelled to eastern Ukraine as mercenaries will be punished.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, since 2014 there have been 84 foreigners in the illegal armed groups in the occupied Donbas regions, 64 of them Russians.