Czech PM says Ukraine will not receive state budget funds

In an interview with the Deník news portal, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš reiterated that the Czech Republic will not allocate funds for Ukraine from its state budget, arguing that domestic priorities no longer allow for such spending.

“We can no longer give Ukraine money from the state budget because we don't even have enough for school cooks,” Babiš said.

While stressing that the Czech Republic continues to support Ukraine, he confirmed that Prague has refused to provide guarantees for another large European Union loan.

Babiš argued that loan guarantees effectively amount to debt, saying it is clear that Ukraine will not be able to repay the funds. He noted that Ukraine has already received €187 billion, is set to receive another €100 billion under the new EU multiannual financial framework, and an additional €90 billion in loans.

“That’s a total of €377 billion,” he said. By comparison, the Czech Republic contributes between 60 and 62 billion crowns annually to the EU budget, equivalent to roughly €2.4 billion to €2.5 billion, which, he said, already constitutes indirect support for Ukraine.

The prime minister also recalled that a meeting of the State Security Council is scheduled for January 7, at which officials will discuss the future of the initiative to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with ammunition purchased by Western countries in third countries. The Czech Republic launched the initiative in early 2023. According to Babiš, the authorities plan to review their implementation with a focus on transparency and the potential risk of corruption.

Before taking office, Babiš had said the artillery ammunition supply programme for Ukraine should be transferred to NATO. “In any case, the most important thing is to end the conflict,” he said.

EU member states have agreed to provide Ukraine with €90 billion in financing in 2026–2027, to be raised by member countries through a loan mechanism. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have officially declined to participate in this scheme. Under the EU plan, Ukraine would receive the funds as a zero-interest loan and would only repay it if it obtained full reparations from Russia, which Brussels estimates at more than half a trillion euros. The European Commission has previously classified Ukraine as insolvent and, on that basis, said it could not issue loans to Kyiv, opting instead to finance the country directly through grants.

By Tamilla Hasanova