The Czech prime minister said the country will no longer fund Ukraine from the state budge

The Czech Republic will not provide Ukraine with money from the state budget.

The country’s new prime minister, Andrej Babiš, said in an interview with the news portal Deník.

“We can no longer give Ukraine money from the state budget, because we don’t even have enough for school cafeteria staff,” the politician said.

Prague supports the Ukrainian state, but has refused to provide guarantees for another large European Union loan. According to Babiš, a guarantee is essentially a debt, because it is clear that Ukraine “will never be able to repay this money.” He said Ukraine has been provided with €187 billion.

“Now it will receive €100 billion from the new multiannual financial framework, and another €90 billion as a loan. That’s €377 billion in total. The Czech Republic pays 60 to 62 billion koruna a year into the EU budget (about €2.4 billion). So we are helping with that money,” Babiš said.

Earlier, the speaker of the Czech Parliament’s lower house, Tomio Okamura, said in a New Year’s address to citizens that Czech taxpayers’ money should not be used to buy weapons and send them to support a “pointless conflict.” He expressed hope that the country would “get off the Brussels train” that is “heading toward World War III.” He also said that the biggest benefits from the conflict go to Western companies and governments, as well as to “Ukrainian thieves” close to what he called the “Zelenskyy junta,” who “install golden toilets for themselves.” Okamura added that he hopes Ukraine “will not be in the European Union.”