Zelensky arrives in Czech Republic to discuss artillery, F-16 support
Czech President Petr Pavel will host Zelensky at the Prague Castle later in the afternoon, marking the Ukrainian leader's first visit to the country since July 2023.
Prague has supplied military aid, championed European Union efforts to secure weapons for Ukraine, and provided refuge for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have fled the war.
Zelensky thanked the Czech Republic for its "principled support" and highlighted key areas of cooperation.
"The Czech artillery initiative has proven effective, and we will continue this effort," he wrote on X. "Another area of cooperation is the development of our military aviation, expanding pilot training programs, and supporting our F-16 fleet."
The Czech artillery initiative, backed by Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and other countries, has significantly bolstered Ukraine's artillery capabilities.
Launched in 2024 to counter ammunition shortages caused by delayed U.S. aid, the program focuses on pooling resources to rapidly supply Ukraine's front-line forces.
Zelensky said discussions would also focus on diplomatic coordination and "joint pressure on Russia to achieve a lasting ceasefire and an end to the war."
Pavel visited Ukraine on March 20–21, his second trip since taking office, where he met with Zelensky and reaffirmed Czech support for Ukraine's defense and reconstruction efforts.
Read also: Backroom diplomacy and battlefield reality: Ukraine at the IMF Spring Meetings
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
11 minutes ago
- New York Post
CNBC's Jim Cramer drops F-bomb live on air while marveling over Trump's ‘great economy'
CNBC host Jim Cramer's excitement about President Donald Trump's latest trade deal got the better of him on Monday. Cramer blurted out 'What the f—!' during a segment of CNBC's 'Squawk on The Street' after seeing a graphic detailing the United States' recent trade deals with various countries, including a major trade deal made with the European Union on Sunday. 'Our biggest problem is we have so much growth that the Fed won't cut. What the f—!' the co-host exclaimed, regretting it as soon as he said it. 'Oh my God! I'm so sorry,' Cramer said. 'I'm so sorry. I take it right back. I take it right back. That was bad.' His co-hosts David Faber and Carl Quintanilla reassured their colleague it wasn't a big deal. 'It's OK. It's OK. It's OK!,' Faber told Cramer as he kept apologizing. 'We're in the moment. It's just the way we talk.' 4 Cramer blurted out 'What the f—!' during a segment of CNBC's 'Squawk on The Street'. MSNBC 'Real people doing live TV,' Quintanilla added. Cramer continued: 'I'm done. I think I'm out of here.' 'No, you're fine,' Faber replied, laughing. 'You're absolutely fine. You want me to say one?' Cramer said, 'No, I just feel like, enough with the rate cut and the economy's booming.' 4 'Oh my God! I'm so sorry,' Cramer said. 'I'm so sorry. I take it right back. I take it right back. That was bad.' REUTERS The anchor also apologized on X following the appearance. He wrote, 'I apologize to all viewers. I was too effusive in making my point about the great economy we have..' Trump averted a trade war and notched another win on Sunday. The president and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union that set a 15-percent tariff on most EU goods imported into the U.S. 4 His co-hosts David Faber and Carl Quintanilla reassured their colleague it wasn't a big deal. MSNBC Von der Leyen said Europe will also purchase $150 billion worth of U.S. energy as part of the deal, in addition to making $600 billion in other investments. The agreement comes days after Trump secured a $550 billion trade deal with Japan. 'We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits. This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it.' 4 The agreement comes days after Trump secured a $550 billion trade deal with Japan. via REUTERS Some prominent critics of the president have admitted that they were wrong about the damage Trump's tariffs would do to the economy. Most recently, HBO host Bill Maher admitted on his 'Club Random' podcast that his predictions were incorrect. 'Just to take an example, tariffs. Now I remember that I, along with probably most people, was saying at the beginning, 'Oh, you know, by the 4th of July… the economy was going to be tanked by then,' and I was kind of like, 'Well, that seems right to me,'' he told guest, liberal pundit Brian Tyler Cohen. 'But, that didn't happen,' Maher said. 'It could happen tomorrow. I'm just saying, that's reality, so let's work first from the reality of that, not from 'I just hate Donald Trump,' because that's boring and doesn't get us anywhere and leads you to dishonesty.'
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ireland's 'economic miracle' at risk from tariffs
The deal between the United States and the European Union may have averted a transatlantic trade war, but worries persist in Ireland where crucial sectors are dependent on US multinationals. Attracted primarily by low corporate taxes, huge pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson, and tech giants like Apple, Google, and Meta have based their European headquarters there. The US investor influx has boosted Irish tax coffers and fuelled record budget surpluses in recent years. But President Donald Trump's tariffs -- a baseline rate of 15 percent on EU exports will apply across the board -- present a stress test for the Irish economic model. Once one of western Europe's economic laggards, Ireland became known as the "Celtic Tiger" thanks to a remarkable turnaround in the 1990s. A model built on low corporate tax and an English-speaking workforce in an EU country proved seductive to foreign investors, particularly from the US. Their presence drove rampant economic growth and would later help Ireland rebound from the financial crash of 2008. The transition was an "Irish economic miracle," said Louis Brennan, professor of business studies at Trinity College Dublin. "Ireland has advanced in a matter of decades from being one of the poorest countries of northwestern Europe to being one of the most prosperous," he told AFP. Last year Ireland hiked its corporate tax rate from 12.5 to 15 percent after pressure from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but still anticipates a budget surplus of 9.7 billion euros for 2025. Ireland's "spectacular" transformation "may have been too successful because we are very dependent in many ways on American companies," says Dan O'Brien, director of the IIEA think tank in Dublin. - Pharma in frontline - Spared from the first round of Trump's tariffs, pharmaceutical companies are now being targeted by the American administration, keen to repatriate production to home soil. Earlier this month the US president threatened a 200 percent levy on the sector. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin expressed mixed feelings at Sunday's 15 percent deal, welcoming that "punitively high tariffs" were avoided. But "higher tariffs than there have been" will make transatlantic trade "more expensive and more challenging," he added. The new 15 percent levy sealed will be "particularly unwelcome in Ireland," O'Brien told AFP. "The pharmaceutical industry is very large relative to the size of the economy, and in recent times around half of its exports have gone to the United States," he said. Pharma employs about 50,000 people and accounted for nearly half of Irish exports last year, reaching 100 billion euros, up by 30 percent year-on-year. "Ireland's problem is that it is uniquely integrated into the United States economy," said O'Brien. "There's no other European country like this. So Ireland is caught in the middle," he said. Official data Monday showed that Ireland's economic growth contracted in the second quarter, a consequence of Trump's tariff threats. Gross domestic product shrank 1.0 percent in the April-June period on reduced exports by multinationals, government figures showed. It had expanded 7.4 percent in the first quarter as companies ramped up exports to the United States in anticipation of Trump's tariffs. Large pharmaceutical companies, particularly American ones, also host certain patents in the country to reduce their tax burden, which then boosts the Irish tax take. Tariffs "risk strongly discouraging American companies from setting up their future factories in Ireland," said Brennan. The US could still decide to impose further tariffs on the sector following an ongoing probe into whether pharmaceutical imports pose a national security problem, he said. Tech firms with EU bases in Dublin who have also transferred part of their intellectual property rights will not be directly impacted by the imposition of tariffs on physical goods. The sector is also a "significant area of investment and employment for Ireland, but at least from a US perspective, it seems outside the scope of the tariffs," said Seamus Coffey, an economics professor at University College Cork. Beyond tariffs, tech could be affected if the United States decides to modify its tax regime to make it less attractive to set up in low-tax countries, said Andrew Kenningham, from Capital Economics. ode-pmu/jkb/bcp/rl
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump is winning his trade war … but Americans will pay the price
President Donald Trump nabbed a major win over the weekend when he announced a trade agreement with the European Union that would slash the rate of tariffs down to 15 percent. While not the fabled '90 deals in 90 days' that his trade adviser Peter Navarro had pledged when Trump initially paused his 'reciprocal tariffs,' it was still a fairly big deal given that the European Union is the biggest trading partner of the United States. And last week, Trump announced the 'largest TRADE DEAL in history' with Japan. And a few months ago, he announced a multibillion-dollar deal with the United Kingdom. All of these countries or blocs are massive trading partners. But it didn't lead to the euphoria on Wall Street that Trump likely wanted. As of the stock market's closing bell on Monday afternoon, the S&P 500 barely budged and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped slightly. It might be because Americans will continue to pay more for products than they did before the deal. But one economist had another thought about the 'biggest deal ever,' as Trump alternately put it, landing with a thud. 'I also think that the markets have taken TACO a bit too seriously,' Tara Hoops, director of economic analysis at the Chamber of Progress, told The Independent. Referencing the acronym for 'Trump Always Chickens Out' — where he has gained a reputation for talking a big game regarding imposing tariffs, or in demanding ceasefires in Ukraine and Gaza, and then backing down hours or days later — Hoops said, Wall Street is in a mode 'where no one is actually believing the frameworks that are coming out.' For all of Trump's talk about how the reciprocal tariffs might lead to a renaissance of American manufacturing, Hoops flagged a fatal flaw: American auto manufacturers will pay 50 percent tariffs on steel and an additional 25 percent on other automobile parts. 'Meanwhile, the same people could just go to the EU and pass on to the consumer,' Hoops said. ' So the only person who is winning here might be Trump, because it seems to him that he has a deal, but the consumers are the ones who have to pay more for these goods.' Trump has said that the United Kingdom will know 'pretty soon' if it will face 50-percent tariffs, but that will likely be cold comfort. And the 50-percent tariffs on European aluminum and steel will remain. Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said that the European Commission started with far too much optimism about the contours of a trade deal with the United States, where they hoped there would be zero tariffs on either sides. 'I think that was really a complete misread of what the Trump administration was going to do on trade,' he told The Independent. 'It might not have been driven by naiveté but rather fear about whether the United States would uphold commitments in Ukraine and NATO. 'I think the combination of those two — just really a misread of Trump's attitudes on trade combined with those concerns about security relationships — made them not retaliate, not respond aggressively, make them not try to build an alliance with Canada and South Korea, other major American trading partners,' he added. Veuger noted that in recent months, even as Trump has paused his tariffs, the value of the dollar has gone down. 'But it's certainly not comprehensive, and also really doesn't resolve all of the trade issues that exist between the US and the EU, for example,' he said. Another unintended consequence may be that Americans might have to replace products they purchase from other countries with lower-quality products made in the United States. And Trump's rupture on tariffs means that other countries will not necessarily trust the word of an American president — because they can simply retract it the way Trump has. So far, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that this Friday is the drop-dead date for tariffs. But this week will also show some critical tests for whether Trump puts the foot on the gas for tariffs. On Wednesday, the quarterly GDP report will drop, which will show how much the U.S. economy grew. It will be a helpful barometer because it will simultaneously show how markets reacted to the 'Liberation Day' announcements as well as the pause. That same day, the Federal Reserve will meet and make its announcement on interest rates. Trump has not been happy with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's decision not to cut rates and he likely will keep them the same this go around as the market absorbs the rates. Lastly, on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its jobs report, which will again be another measurement of the health of the economy since Trump's announcement. If any of these indicators are weak, cause the stock market to nosedive or the cost of U.S. bonds to spike again, it might be time to fire up some tortillas and get ready for a fresh batch of TACO.
