The Czech Republic has employed 160,000 Ukrainian refugees, according to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
“The Czech Republic is the country that has accepted the most Ukrainian refugees per capita… Our decision has been successful, and we as a society have managed to overcome obstacles and further integrate refugees. Currently, 160,000 are working in our labor market,” Fiala said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Prague on Monday.
According to him, proposals on the future of Ukrainian refugees “will depend on how the current situation develops.” At the same time, Fiala reminded that the current refugee protection program in the EU is valid until March 2026 and this deadline must be kept in mind.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of February 19, 2025, was estimated at 6.346 million, and worldwide at 6.907 million, which is 43,000 more than on January 16.
According to Eurostat, Germany remains by far the country with the largest number of refugees from Ukraine in the EU and the world, with 1,161,450 at the end of 2024, or 27.3% of the total number of beneficiaries in the EU. The top three also include Poland with 991,630, or 23.3%, and the Czech Republic with 388,630, or 9.1%.
The Czech Republic will take part in six public investment projects to modernize Ukrainian medical institutions.
According to the Ministry of Health, the European Commission has now agreed on projects to modernize the Lviv Regional Hospital for War Veterans and the Repressed, Rivne Regional Hospital for War Veterans, Volyn Regional Clinical Hospital, Kryvyi Rih City Hospital #5, Dnipro City Clinical Hospital #16, and Kyiv Regional Children’s Hospital.
The Ministry of Health notes that the Czech Republic is a member of the Ukraine Facility program and is potentially ready to finance the reconstruction and modernization of 13 hospitals in seven regions of Ukraine.
So far, Russians have damaged 1984 medical facilities and destroyed another 301. According to the World Bank, the reconstruction needs in Ukraine’s healthcare sector over the next 10 years amount to $19.4 billion.
Since the start of the full-scale war, the Czech Foreign Ministry has allocated EUR 4.3 million for medical equipment and machinery for Ukrainian hospitals, ambulances, buses, and communications equipment for medical units.
Join UP!, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian travel market, is opening a company in the Czech Republic, with an office in Prague, the company’s press service toldInterfax-Ukraine.
“Entering the Czech market is an important stage in the brand’s development. Although this is the ninth country where we have started working since the creation of Join UP! tour operator in 2010 in Ukraine, this story is not only about growth for us. Scaling the Join UP! travel experience to other markets also reflects our commitment to transforming the travel industry and encouraging people to travel, because we sincerely believe that travel is not just entertainment, but also a way to take care of yourself and your loved ones, to live every day of your life to the fullest, despite all the challenges of recent years,” comments Alina Alba, co-founder of Join UP! Alina Alba, co-founder of Join UP!
It is reported that the new tour operator will soon present a summer selection of its top destinations to the Czech market. Among them are direct flights from Prague to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, as well as to the Mediterranean resorts of Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus. It is also noted that from Katowice, Poland, the tour operator offers flights to Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Spain, Montenegro, and Cyprus. Such a flight program opens up additional opportunities for our compatriots to spend their holidays in the Czech Republic. In particular, from Ostrava, where there are many Ukrainians, it is an hour’s drive to Katowice, Poland, which is almost four times closer than Prague.
The Join UP! brand is developing on the principle of localism by combining a global strategy with the local cultural context. The brand’s international expansion already covers 8 markets: the Baltic States, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Preparations for the launch in Slovakia and Hungary are nearing completion.
Also in Poland, in Katowice, in 2024, the brand opened the first franchise agency on the international market.
Join UP! LLC was established in 2013, with an authorized capital of UAH 72 million 671 thousand. The ultimate beneficiaries are Yuriy and Oleksandr Alba. In 2023, revenue increased to UAH 16 million 639 thousand, which is 2.3 times higher than in 2022.
The Czech government is seeking support from other European Union countries for a new ammunition initiative after implementing a similar initiative in 2024, German N-TV reports.
“This is a matter of political will, and if many EU member states rejoin our initiative, we can achieve a lot for Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in an interview with the German news network (RND).
“We are currently looking at how we can finance the new ammunition initiative, and then we will see how many rounds of ammunition we can get for this money,” the Czech foreign minister added.
As reported, Defense Minister Jana Černohová announced the second project to purchase ammunition for Ukraine under the working title Initiative 2025 back in July last year. Deník N reported at the time that five companies would participate in the project: Czechoslovak Group, STV Group, Omnipol with Ompo Holding, Colt CZ Group SE, owned by Česká zbrojovka, and the DSS arms company.
Under the previous Czech ammunition initiative, Ukraine was provided with approximately half a million pieces of artillery ammunition. A total of 18 countries joined the initiative.
Ukraine has simplified the opening of international bus routes with the Czech Republic, exempting carriers from the need to confirm the presence of a parity partner from a neighboring country, the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure (MinRestore) has announced.
According to the report, the period for coordinating the route and issuing a permit will not exceed four months. Communication channels have been established between the countries specifically for the opening of routes.
The relevant changes were agreed upon at a meeting of the joint commission between the Ministry of Reconstruction and the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.
“The growing demand for bus transportation requires the state to ensure an effective process of opening new routes so that the market can quickly respond to passenger demand. The Czech Republic is one of the most popular countries in terms of bus service, so together with our Czech colleagues we have simplified the procedure for opening routes,” Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Serhiy Derkach said in a statement.
He expressed hope that the decision would help improve transport accessibility, increase passenger traffic and help boost business.
The report indicates that the Czech Republic became the first country with which Ukraine ensured full compliance of regular bus routes.
This year, agreements on non-parity passenger transportation were also signed with Slovakia.
Nova Poshta Group has expanded its network of Nova Post offices in the Czech Republic to five cities: after opening in Prague, Brno and Liberec, the company has expanded to Pilsen and Pardubice, its press service reports.
The press release, citing NovaPost CEO in the Czech Republic Andrey Artemenko, said that the next branches of the company will appear in Ostrava, Mladá Boleslav, and České Budějovice.
“We also plan to develop a network of branches within existing businesses, and therefore invite owners of shops, supermarkets, coworking spaces, dry cleaning salons, and others to cooperate,” Artemenko added.
It is specified that Nova Poshta currently has more than 35 thousand points of service for sending and receiving parcels in Europe, of which 90 are Nova Post’s own branches in 13 European countries: Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Moldova and the United Kingdom.
