Czech Republic–Ukraine relations are the foreign relations between the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Both countries established current diplomatic relations on 18 February, 1992. The Czech Republic has an embassy in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

and Ukraine has an embassy in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. the Czech Republic is a member of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, which Ukraine applied for in 2022.

History

Czechoslovak newspaper ''Svoboda'', co-founded by

Jaroslav Hašek Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czechs, Czech writer, Humorism, humorist, Satire, satirist, journalist, Bohemianism, bohemian, first anarchist and then communist, and commissar of the Red Army against the Czechoslovak Legion. He is best k ...

, was issued in

in 1917 and

Taganrog Taganrog (, ) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don (river), Don River. It is in the Black Sea region. Population: Located at the site of a ...

, capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, in 1918. During the

interwar era In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ...

, the current Ukrainian

Zakarpattia Oblast Zakarpattia Oblast (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Закарпатська область), also referred to as simply Zakarpattia (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Закарпаття; Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Kárpátalja'') or Transcar ...

was part of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, before being

ceded The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdicti ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1938. It was eventually annexed by the Soviet Union and included within the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Czechs in Ukraine

Czechs migrated to the territory of modern-day Ukraine in the 19th century. Following the Ukrainian independence of 1991, over 1,800 Czechs left Ukraine for the Czech Republic by 1993.

Ukrainians in the Czech Republic

Immigration to the

from Ukraine, primarily for economic reasons, began to grow significantly in the early 1990s following the end of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. In 1991, 8,500 Ukrainian citizens were recorded as living on Czech territory, with that number increasing to 132,481 , according to the

Czech Statistical Office The Czech Statistical Office (abbreviated CSO or CZSO; , abbreviated ''ČSÚ'') is a central state administration authority of the Czech Republic. It is an office independent of the country's government, whose main tasks are the collection, proces ...

. This made Ukrainians the largest expatriate group within the Czech Republic, comprising 30% of the country's total international population. Following the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

on February 24, 2022, the number of Ukrainians within the country increased drastically as thousands fled the war. As of July 31, 2023, over 357,000 refugees from Ukraine have been given temporary protection status within the Czech Republic, making the country the third largest destination for Ukrainians in the

Resident diplomatic missions

* the Czech Republic has an embassy in

. * Ukraine has an embassy in

. File:Embassy of Czech and Slovakia in Kyiv.jpg, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Kyiv File:Consular division of the Embassy of Ukraine in Prague.jpg, Embassy of Ukraine in Prague

References

Sources

* * **An English version was also presented as a conference paper,

External links

Czech embassy in Kyiv

Ukrainian embassy in Prague

Bilateral relations of Ukraine {{Bilateralrelations-stub