Minister Černochová: We strongly condemn the attack by Russia. The West has to react in the toughest manner

Author: by editorial staff, photo courtesy of psp.cz

Address by Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic Jana Černochová in the Chamber of Deputies on February 24th, 2022

Distinguished Speaker of the Chamber, Prime Minister, Members of the Government, Deputies, Your Excellency – we just had a bilateral meeting ahead of this session of the Chamber of Deputies.

The world changed last night. Although the global security situation was not ideal and rather progressively worsened, it was as if we had still hoped that an open war conflict, an armed attack against a sovereign state was not something that would belong to Europe in the 21st century. The reality is sadly different.

Although the NATO Alliance and all countries of the democratic community made every effort to solve the situation between Ukraine and Russia through diplomatic means, the opposite happened last night. The very worst scenario materialised. An attack on a sovereign and free country occurred. An attack that can only be named as a horrifying crime.

As history proved many times before, it is not possible to come to terms with aggressors and if they want war, they will have it – it is only a question of time when it will happen and under what pretext or justification it will be.

Together with our Allies in NATO, the EU and other partners, the Czech Republic stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine in this hard moment. Ukraine is a country that is close to us in civilisation and ethnicity terms, but we are also bound by the fact that Ukrainians are faced with a situation which we ourselves faced two times in the last century, in 1938 and in 1968. It is therefore our moral obligation to protest the violation of territorial integrity and an unprecedented attack.

We strongly denounce this attack by Russia and the reaction by the West must be as tough as possible. The Russian regime has to perceptibly feel the impact of the tough sanctions and the power and unity of western Allies. We all have to speak in unison – both the NATO Alliance and the Czech Republic. That is why I very much welcome and thank the commander in chief of the armed forces for his address denouncing President Putin. President Zeman, thank you.

Likewise, we must not let the Russian propaganda and narrative dominate the media and hide the essence, which is that Russia took a step that cannot be justified by any reason. It is necessary to call things by their right name – invasion is always an invasion, violence is violence, homicide is homicide. We must not allow this to be twisted in any way by false stories about how Russia had been provoked, cornered, frustrated. None of that is true, Russia has not been threatened in any way.

In the morning, I called the MoD Crisis Management Staff, where we received briefings by the senior officials of our Armed Forces, then the meeting of the National Security Council followed. The North Atlantic Council was in session too and I am meeting my colleagues in the MoD CM Staff again tonight.

As to our response and further steps, ladies and gentlemen, the Czech Republic is involved in intensive discussions on multiple levels about a joint course of action by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. As I said the North Atlantic Council was in session in the morning, and there will be an extraordinary summit tomorrow.

NATO is in the process of activating extraordinary defence plans enabling the deployment of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force in defence of the NATO nations. Consultations are under way of the nations in accordance with the North Atlantic Treaty Article 4, which guarantee a joint course of action for defence against violation of the integrity of the NATO nations in the Eastern Flank.

If needed, we stand ready to deploy our high readiness forces and discuss further requirements according to the situation. At this time, that would involve 400 service personnel of the 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade and 180 CBRN defence specialists.

Given the developments, NATO declared for the nations dedicated crisis response measures for such instances. The Government will be ready to realise those measures instantly to answer contingencies if necessary. The Government is in session tomorrow and I am ready to propose the package in that session already.

But we will observe the mandatory procedures, NATO principles and indeed the international law. Because we are not Putin – the law is sacred for us.

We stand ready to provide maximum assistance to Ukraine, and we are supporting Ukrainians in material terms already, be it the donation of artillery ammunition and humanitarian aid. By the same token, we must not forget the agreement on the provision of medical care to the wounded service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the MoD facilities, which we signed a couple of weeks ago, and which has now gained a relevance hard to envision then.

Our goal is not to escalate the situation, but to show power. The Putin regime has to be held responsible for aggressive policy and for killing innocent civilians. If we do not stop him today, it can be us who will face a bigger threat tomorrow.

Putin strives to renew the Soviet Union at the expense of free sovereign countries that are not interested in Russian dominance – they experienced it. And that applies to the Czech Republic too! He does not need to stop in Ukraine.

Unscrupulous bandit Putin will eventually lose, but it is going to cost life, health and major damage to the property of innocent people.

He is putting at risk not only the lives of Ukrainians, but especially his service members and citizens, whom he has taken hostage for the realisation of his insane plan.

We as the West are not weak. We have to show it clearly.

Let me make a final remark. The current situation clearly shows, dear colleagues, how important national defence is and how we may not underestimate it. The threat of war is regrettably neither a matter of the past nor of other continents. It is becoming blatantly obvious that we must not underestimate our defence and invest into it, duly and properly.

Druzi, my s vami!