Russia-Ukraine war: Poland, Czech Republic discuss coordinating efforts to support Kyiv

President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, met with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, at Prague Castle on Wednesday, April 27. Following the meeting, both leaders conducted a joint press conference and informed that they discussed coordinating measures to support Ukraine.

"Our bilateral relations are great, and I think that when we work together to overcome this crisis, which includes working together to help Ukrainian refugees, we will rest and say that the world is different from what it was before this war, but I want to believe that it will be better because we can work together to ensure that aggression is not successful," Zeman said.

Further, according to the Czech president, Poland has emerged as a key defender of European principles and a model country, in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Moreover, in the matter of the Russian gas supply to Poland being suspended, Zeman expressed the Czech Republic's unwavering support for Warsaw.

He claimed that by cutting off these supplies, Russia had broken existing contracts, both in terms of dates and payment methods. It is worth noting that Russia has halted gas exports to Poland due to the country's refusal to pay in rubles for supplies. It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin directed that "unfriendly" countries pay for Russian gas in rubles.

Russia-Ukraine War

Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after they refused to pay in rubles, striking directly at European economies in its harshest reaction to international sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that any country attempting to interfere in Ukraine would meet a fast response from Moscow, saying that all decisions on how Moscow would respond had already been made.

In addition, according to a local official, Russian forces pounded a massive steel plant in Mariupol on Wednesday, where the city's final defenders and some residents are holed up. Despite Putin saying there was no need to storm the Azovstal steel plant after declaring victory in Mariupol, an assistant to the city mayor, Petro Andryushchenko, said airstrikes on the factory had not stopped.

Since Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine on February 24, much of Mariupol has been destroyed by Russian artillery, according to local officials, and roughly 100,000 inhabitants remain in the city. Hundreds of fighters and civilians are thought to be trapped inside the massive steel mill.