Czech President Petr Pavel called for maximum efforts to end the war in Ukraine and prevent war from reaching the Czech Republic during a memorial ceremony honoring American soldiers killed in World War II, Ceske Noviny reported on 7 June.
Pavel made the statement while commemorating fallen US troops at monuments in the Šumava Mountains, where he honored their memory in two extinct Šumava villages, the southwestern part of the Czech Republic.
“We must remember the sacrifices of all those who contributed to our ability to live in freedom and peace,” Pavel said in Žlutice. “And although we call what happened here a tragedy, unfortunately, in the context of the entire Second World War, this was only a small episode. But in the context of the people who went through this and their relatives, it was an even greater tragedy, because it actually happened at the end of the war.”
Pavel emphasized the absurdity of deaths occurring so close to the war’s official end, with young people dying senselessly when only days remained until the war’s conclusion.
“And unfortunately, this is happening today as well,” he said. “If today there is war in Ukraine, and people are dying just as senselessly, just as absurdly, as it was here, for reasons that many of us do not even understand, that is why we must do everything in our power not only to end the war in Ukraine, but also to prevent it from reaching us, as it was in the past.”
At Gruberg, Pavel added that it was important to remember what led to the start of World War II in the 1930s.
“If we are not careful enough, if we do not respond to these signals in time, then perhaps our successors will wonder how it is possible that we did not see how this happened,” Pavel said. “Just as we can wonder today when we look at the 1930s and ask ourselves how it is possible that they did not see it then.”
The president’s remarks come as European officials express growing concern about Russian military intentions. EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius shares Western intelligence assessments that a Russian attack on EU states could occur within the next few years.
Recent evaluations by Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and Armed Forces indicate Russia views itself in systemic war with the West and is preparing for a major war with NATO.