Ukraine's First Lady thanks Czechia for support

The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech parliament, approved in a summary procedure today an amendment to the legislation dubbed lex Ukraine governing lodging and registration of Ukrainian refugees after the state of emergency expires.
The amendment allows municipalities to earmark buildings meant to accommodate Ukrainian refugees fleeing their home country amid the Russian invasion. Regions and municipalities should keep providing emergency shelters and lodging.
Labor Minister Marian Jurečka pushed into the amendment a clause under which refugees may apply for an allowance equal to subsistence wage six months after they received the emergency protection visa in the Czech Republic.
The monthly allowance amounts to CZK 4,250 for adults and CZK 3,050 for children. At present, Ukrainian refugees are entitled to CZK 5,000.

Prague will close its Regional Assistance Centre of Aid to Ukraine in Vysočany, which also serves the Central Bohemia Region, from Thursday night due to the capital being overburdened.
Fiala said since the system of assistance centers had proven its worth, he could not see any reason to close the Prague one, calling the steps taken by the City Hall ill-considerate.
Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib will insist on the creation of the system for the relocation of refugees to other regions with vacant capacities at his Friday talks with PM Petr Fiala, Hřib told reporters.

Dozens of Roma mothers with small children from Ukraine survive for more than a week in a tent camp near the Brno railway station set up by the city, reports Deník N.
The city officials tell the women that they are not entitled to any benefits and in some cases even threaten to take their children if they don't leave as soon as possible.
Women and their children had to sleep on wet mattresses or in paddles due to heavy rains last week. Some women cannot fit in the crowded military tents and have to sleep on the ground.
Czechia granted temporary protection visas to 2,541 Ukrainians on Monday, 850 more than a week ago, and the total number of the visas reached 373,823, shows the Interior Ministry's data.

Enrollment of Ukrainian children in Czech schools has begun although it is unclear how many refugees will attend the schools in September, depending on the course of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Around 70,000 school-age children came to the Czech Republic from the invaded country, and a third have started school so far. However, many of them go to emergency classes on makeshift premises.
Czechia has issued 371,282 visas to Ukrainian refugees. Nearly 82,000 Ukrainian refugees are staying in Prague.

The interior minister Rakušan has repeatedly referred to a large number of Ukrainian Roma refugees to have dual Hungarian citizenship, exempting them from help in Czechia.
However, the findings suggest that only a very small number of Roma refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to the Czech Republic have dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizenship.
"To date, we have asked for an inspection in approximately 5,500 cases, ... we have identified approximately 150 people who actually have dual citizenship," Ondřej Moravčík, a spokesman for the police, told ČT.

Czechia, during its EU presidency in the second half of the year, will strive for Ukraine not to be excluded from the efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the war between it and Russia, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský.
He reacted to some Western politicians' efforts to seek an end to the fighting even at the cost of Ukraine's territorial concessions towards Russia.
Czechia's EU presidency alone will not influence the negotiations with Russia, but the Czech Republic will table the question of the support for Ukraine at EU meetings. "We will emphasize that Europe must not forget about Ukraine," Lipavský said.