Volunteers collecting donations for Ukraine were attacked by Russian-speaking people in Prague

Volunteers collecting donations for Ukraine were attacked by Russian-speaking foreigners in downtown Prague, Czech news portal Novinky.cz reported on June 2.

Millions of Ukrainians have sought refuge abroad since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion, fleeing occupied cities and bombings. There have been several cases of Ukrainians being attacked by Russian-speaking Europeans.

According to the media report, the clashes between the two groups of foreigners took place on June 1 near a stand on the Old Town Square. Videos have appeared on the Internet showing a dispute between Ukrainian and Russian speakers and, in some cases, physical confrontations.

Police confirmed to the news agency that they went to Old Town Square that day to investigate the conflict.

“The criminal police are investigating all the circumstances of this incident. They are investigating what happened at the crime scene. No one was restricted in their personal freedom or arrested,” a police spokeswoman told Novinky.cz.

It is still unclear how many people were involved in the incident and who the victims and perpetrators were.

Prague is one of the European cities that have been taking in Ukrainians fleeing the war since February 2022. More than 300,000 Ukrainian refugees are said to live in the Czech Republic, of which an estimated 80,000 are in Prague.

At the beginning of April, two Ukrainian soldiers were stabbed to death in the German town of Murnau am Staffelsee. The main suspect is a Russian, the German police and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. Details and motives of the murder are currently being investigated.

In August 2023, there was also an attempted murder of a 10-year-old Ukrainian child in Germany. According to media reports, the motive was that the child did not speak Russian.

Demographic catastrophe: The biggest threat to post-war Ukraine

The threat of a demographic crisis has been present in Ukraine for some time, but Russia’s large-scale invasion has brought it to the brink of collapse. According to government figures, the country had a population of 41 million in 2021. Now it is about 35 million, and experts warn